Byju’s lenders accused of using bogus loan-default claims to gain control
By Jef Feeley and Reshmi Basu
Lenders to one of India’s hottest tech startups, Byju’s, created bogus default claims tied to a $1.2 billion loan as part of a scheme to gain control of the education-technology provider, the firm’s lawyer told a judge.
The distressed-debt lenders are “playing hardball” to create leverage in negotiations to restructure the loan and causing problems for Byju’s executives, Sheron Korpus, a lawyer for the Bengaluru-base company, said at a hearing in state-court in Delaware Friday.
Lenders, including US investment firms Redwood Investments LLC and Silver Point Capital LP, are “making extortionate demands” of Byju’s, putting the ed-tech firm “under a lot of pressure,” Korpus told Delaware Chancery Court Judge Morgan Zurn. Byju’s...