Byju's travails: US court backs lenders’ action
₹10,000 crore today) for the online tutoring company in the US, and removing Riju Raveendran, the brother of the edtech giant’s founder, from the SPV’s board. The ruling is significant because the case filed by Glas Trust Co., the trustee representing 37 lenders, against the Indian company in Delaware was the first court case that sparked two related courtroom battles in New York and Miami. “The plaintiffs in this action, Glas Trust Co.
and Timothy Pohl, filed a complaint against defendants Riju Ravindran, Byju’s Alpha, Inc., and Tangible Play Inc. Plaintiffs seek a declaration that Glas validly removed Ravindran as Byju’s Alpha’s sole director and officer, and that it validly appointed Pohl as Byju’s Alpha’s director and officer, among other things. Following a half-day trial on a paper record, I conclude that Pohl is indeed Byju’s Alpha’s sole director and officer," Delaware chancery court judge Morgan Zurn pronounced in an order dated 2 November.
The transcript of the telephonic order, which was reviewed by Mint, was filed by Glas Trust on 6 November in a Miami court. The lenders are seeking information about the money that Byju’s Alpha transferred to an obscure hedge fund and want to know its current whereabouts. For now, it is unclear if Byju’s, which has time until 2 December, will appeal the Delaware court ruling.
An email sent to Joseph Cicero, partner at Chipman Brown Cicero & Cole, the counsel for Raveendran and Byju’s, went unanswered. A spokesperson for Glas Trust declined to comment. Glas Trust, which represents lenders who had extended a loan of $1.2 billion to the world’s most valuable education technology startup in November 2021, was peeved after Byju’s failed to get WhiteHat Jr, a company bought by
. Read more on livemint.com
