When Cupid stepped up to Tourism Finance, and walked back

livemint.com:

Mint. The story begins in September 2023 when Aditya Halwasiya and Halwasiya group company Columbia Petro Chem acquired Cupid, buying a 42% promoter stake for ₹160 crore, and becoming its biggest shareholder. On 20 February, Aditya Halwasiya acquired 13.06% stake in Tourism Finance Corp. for ₹250 crore, becoming its single-largest shareholder.

Within a week, Tourism Finance said it plans to raise ₹200 crore from three entities—Cupid, whose biggest shareholder is Halwasiya; Columbia Petro Chem Pvt. Ltd, and Halwasiya himself —by issuing warrants. Halwasiya agreed to invest ₹50 crore, while Columbia Petro Chem Pvt.

Ltd and Cupid would bring in ₹100 and ₹50 crore, respectively. After conversion of warrants, Halwasiya, Columbia Petro Chem and Cupid would have owned 14.13%, 4.48% and 2.24%, respectively. Put simply, Halwasiya and the companies where his family is the biggest shareholder, stood to own 20.85% of Tourism Finance Corp post-completion of warrants.

While Cupid had a market capitalization of ₹2,867 crore as of Friday, Tourism Finance Corp. was valued at ₹1,563 crore. Columbia Petro Chem is the flagship company of Universal Halwasiya Group, a six-decade-old Kolkata-based business group founded by Madan Mohan Halwasiya.

Madan Mohan Halwasiya’s grandson, Ajay Halwasiya, is one of the shareholders of Three Musketeers Hospitality, a Dubai-based hospitality firm. The two other co-founders are Hari Tibrewala and Surendra Bagri; their companies Zenith Multi Trading DMCC and JE Impex DMCC, are among the 13 entities whose assets were seized by the Enforcement Directorate earlier this month. Emails and messages sent to Sethurathnam Ravi, chairman of Tourism Finance Corp.