In today’s Finshots, we decode why Adani wants to pay ₹12,500 crores for the remains of Jaiprakash Associates’ empire, and what it says about India’s new economy of dead companies.

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The Story

In 2009, the F1 gods descended on India. The Jaypee Group had convinced the government and probably even themselves that they could build a Formula One racetrack in the middle of Greater Noida. And not just any racetrack but a world-class, Hermann Tilke-designed, 5.3 km loop that would host the Indian Grand Prix! It would put India on the global motorsport map, create jobs, spark tourism and maybe even birth an Indian Monaco.

But what they didn’t say was that the track was just the bait and the real deal was the real estate around it.

How?

Well, the entire F1 project was routed through Jaypee Sports International Ltd, a subsidiary of JP Associates Ltd, the group’s flagship. And what Jaypee really wanted to build was Jaypee Sports City, a massive township of malls, high-rises, office towers and sports infrastructure across thousands of acres. And for that to happen, Jaypee had another arm in action, Jaypee Infratech Ltd. It was responsible for developing a large chunk of the real estate, including the adjoining Yamuna Expressway (a 165-km stretch linking Noida to Agra).

To work on this, the government allocated Jaypee land to unlock value and rake in the profits.

Or so they thought.

Because F1 left in 3 years, the towers never got completed, JP group ran out of money… and eventually, time.

Which makes you ask — How did it all fall apart?

You see, JP Associates’ story didn’t begin with grand dreams. In fact, it began in 1958 with a civil engineer named Jaiprakash Gaur who built dams and canals across India. Over time, he moved from contractor to builder, and eventually founded Jaiprakash Associates in 1979. His company constructed expressways, hydropower projects, cement plants and even universities. At its peak, it was a ₹65,000 crore conglomerate spread across dozens of businesses.

But like many infrastructure empires in India at the time, it ran on borrowed money.

The Yamuna Expressway alone cost over ₹13,000 crores. Power plants in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand added thousands of crores more. And cement plants were financed the same way. The model was simple: take loans, build fast, sell fast, repay.

But when India’s infrastructure cycle slowed after 2011 and interest rates climbed, the group couldn’t sell. Or sell fast enough. Their cash flows dried up and repayment deadlines slipped. And by 2016, JP’s group-level debt had ballooned to over ₹75,000 crores (up from ₹11,000 crores just eight years earlier). Banks tried to restructure loans, give moratoriums and even nudged asset sales. In fact, that’s how UltraTech acquired JP’s cement division in 2017, and how part of its power business was sold to JSW Energy.

But all of it wasn’t just enough. Because the troubles ran deep till the ground level. 

Homebuyers in Noida began protesting. Retail shareholders kept holding on, and the shares even got suspended from trading due to regulator surveillance. And banks, having waited nearly a decade, finally had enough.

So in 2024, JP Associates was dragged into insolvency. The NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) admitted it under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP), with over ₹57,000 crore in claims. Crucially, the tribunal ordered that resolution plans be invited for the entire company as a going concern (not in parts).

And the rest of it makes for today’s story.

Because 26 parties expressed interest. A few submitted bids, but now, the spotlight is on Adani Enterprises.

Yes, Vedanta, Jindal Power, Dalmia Bharat, and PNC Infratech are also in the fray. But Adani is reportedly the only one with a ₹12,500 crore unconditional bid. And while that’s driving all the chatter, the excitement is also because of what Adani tends to do with deals like these.

You see, for Adani Group, this isn’t a rescue or even a turnaround bet, but something far more calculated.

Jaypee’s assets, even today, hold value for someone who can plug them into a larger machine. 

Its four cement plants in UP and MP, with 5.6 MTPA (metric tonne per annum) capacity and 12 leased limestone mines, could fold neatly into Adani’s Ambuja-ACC cement empire. Its 279 MW captive thermal plant adds power capacity. And JP Associates’ 24% stake in JP Power Ventures also gives Adani a toehold in thermal, hydro and mining operations. Plus, the EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) business, which once built roads in the Northeast and power plants in Bhutan, gives Adani more boots and contracts on the ground.

And all of it is available at liquidation pricing, because creditors know they’re not getting anything close to that.

So the deal, if approved, could bring closure for lenders. It could salvage value from a broken empire. And in Adani’s hands, it could even become part of something bigger.

But let’s also take a look at this from another angle. One that isn’t just about cement or synergies or Adani.

You see, this deal is a mirror.

It shows how India now recycles bad bets — not with public bailouts but by running bankrupt firms through court and handing them to whoever’s willing to pay a fat cheque.

JP should’ve been written off by 2016, but instead of being liquidated, its assets will now power someone else’s story. That’s progress. Slow, flawed, litigious. But it might move the needle for some.

Still, scars remain. Thousands of homebuyers in Jaypee’s Noida projects juggle EMIs and rent while their buildings stall. Adani’s bid won’t fix that.

This also isn’t a win for retail shareholders. JP Associates and JP Power stocks have crashed, been suspended and are often under regulatory watch, making them difficult to exit for most. Equity sits at the bottom of the IBC waterfall (and in most cases, it doesn't even make the queue).

But for Adani, it’s business. In the last three years, the group has acquired two of India’s largest cement firms, a massive slum redevelopment project, a thermal power plant in Chhattisgarh, and now, potentially, a bankrupt infra giant. None of these were clean buys. They were messy, debt-laden, politically entangled assets. But that seems to be the point. It’s kind of an arbitrage about not buying value, but buying disorder. Taking assets others see as failures and absorbing them into a larger engine that can make them work. And it’s not a bad strategy. It’s probably the only one that works when you’re building at Adani’s scale. Greenfield projects take time, land is hard to acquire and clearances are harder. So why not buy something broken that already has the paperwork sorted?

Jaypee, in that sense, seems like the perfect acquisition. Not because of what it is, but because of what it once was.

Perhaps that’s why there’s a run up in JP stocks. But remember, the deal hasn’t been approved yet. And Adani isn’t the only one circling. There are still other bidders in the race, and no guarantees on how this plays out.

And even if the deal goes through, history should temper expectations.

In 2021, when JP Infratech went through insolvency, equity shareholders got zilch. Ditto with JP Power Ventures’ earlier debt restructuring: creditors recovered a portion, but stockholders were left with little to no value. That’s how insolvency and distressed restructuring typically works. They aren’t designed to revive companies or reward equity holders, but to salvage hard assets and close bad chapters.

So if the current rally feels like vindication, it isn’t.

JP Power reported a 70% fall in net profit in the last quarter of FY25. JP Associates saw over ₹2,800 crore in losses in FY25. So there’s no turnaround here, just a slow-motion wind-down.

Even if the company talks about improving financial stability, it doesn’t change the overall math. For now, this hype seems to be running on speculation and on the hope of a big sell-off.

Until then…

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