Terming the allegations levelled by online news portal Cobrapost that its promoters have siphoned off over Rs 31,000 crore of public funds, as "baseless", leading mortgage lender DHFL Wednesday claimed that the charges are based on publicly available information.

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Cobrapost seems to have picked up its information from an extortion bid by an individual earlier, DHFL chairman Kapil Wadhawan said in an investor call.

"Wherever we believe that there are names taken from public records, where DHFL has advanced money, we will surely get into further details to know exactly what the total exposure is," he said.

Wadhawan also rubbished the claim of related-party loans being given out.

"DHFL has not lent to any shell companies. Even if it belongs to somebody else, there are some companies which are not even related. It is very difficult for us to say currently. DHFL per se is a clean corporate," he said.

Responding to allegations of siphoning off loans , which the report pegged at over Rs 31,000 crore, Wadhawan said the group's holding company is allowed to carry out money and regularly reports all transactions.

"Wadhawan Global Capital is a core investment company regulated by the RBI and having bought its approval for overseas direct investment. We have remitted close to 100 million pounds for making investments in financial assets which have been duly disclosed in all points of time including in our balance-sheet," he said.

Replying to a question on low networth of companies and lending only based on the development rights in project loans, he said the company will check the facts.

"We go by the overall potential of the project and what is the return we can get from that project, and what is the security that is available. We cannot get into case specifics now, but we go by promoters' standing," he said.

Wadhawan said the allegations come right after a complaint raised by one Vikas Shekhar and alleged that the latter wanted to extort money by maligning the name of DFHL.

Exuding confidence that the company will be able to meet its liquidity requirements for the next year, he said it is likely to announce the sale of its affordable housing subsidiary Aadhar Housing Finance in the next two days.

It is also planning to monetise its investments in the life insurance venture and is talking to its foreign partner about the same, Wadhawan said.

According to a Cobrapost expose, Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL) through layers of shell companies allegedly has siphoned off Rs 31,000 crore from its total bank loans of Rs 97,000 crore and used the illicit money to snap up posh properties around the globe.

Even after the management clarifications, the DHFL scrip shed nearly 5 percent to Rs 161.60 on the BSE, whose benchmark closed flat in a choppy trade.

 

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)