Before his downfall, Cox & Kings promoter Peter Kerkar sealed $5-million loan pacts

The High Court of Justice, London ordered winding up of PEL on December 3, 2020, according to the UK Company registry.

Kerkar is currently in a Mumbai jail and faces a slew of cases being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED), Mumbai Police and Gujarat Police. He was arrested in November 2020 over allegations of siphoning funds through related party transactions. Bail applications in several cases are pending before the Bombay High Court.

In letter to Global Aerospace Ltd, Kerkar says ‘I am a sophisticated businessman’

The loan agreement between Global Aerospace Limited (GAL) and PEL dated November 12, 2018, signed by Kerkar, available in the Cyprus Confidential data, states that the loan was for “General Corporate Purpose” which includes “onward lending to other members of the group for meeting their short term liquidity requirements.”

The data show that Kerkar wrote to Global Aerospace the same day on ‘waiver of independent legal advice regarding personal guarantee’ with regard to the $2 million loan, saying “I am a sophisticated businessman and have given personal guarantees before.”

That very day, according to the data, three directors of Cox & Kings (chairman Kerkar and directors Urrshila Kerkar and Pesi Patel) met at 10 am in Mumbai and “approved” the corporate guarantee for the loan.

Minutes of the meetings available in the data dump note that “the meeting had been called to consider and approve the corporate guarantee in favour of Alyo Group Limited and Global Aerospace Limited (the “Lenders”) for the principal loan amount of $3,000,000 and $2,000,000 respectively.”

Soon after, at 9 am Cyprus time, Global Aerospace Limited met at its Nicosia office “to consider the participation by the Company in an unsecured co-investment opportunity by a way of a loan to be provided to Prometheon Enterprise Limited (the ‘Loan’) in an effort to expand the business opportunities of the Company for the benefit of its members.”

Documents accessed from the Registrar of Companies of Cyprus show that Global Aerospace Limited was renamed Global Base Re Advisory Limited from September 25, 2021. It is promoted by Eliyahu Allalouf of Tel Aviv and its two directors are George Georgiou and Theodora Kaskani. Allalouf has 28.55 per cent stakes in it while the remaining 71.45 per cent are with a British Virgin Islands firm Transport Holding International Limited (THIL). The THIL is again 100 per cent owned by Allalouf himself, documents show.

In India, Kerkar’s hard times began in 2019 when Cox & Kings was sent to a bankruptcy court in October that year after it defaulted on payments.

Cox & Kings and its promoter Kerkar came under the scanner after an investigation into allegations of kickbacks taken by Rana Kapoor, Managing Director of Yes Bank, in lieu of granting loans to several companies that later defaulted on repayments. Kapoor is also in custody

The Indian Express sent questions to Mumbai-based lawyers of Kerkar and Kapoor regarding the loans but received no response.

An email sent to Eliyahou Allalouf for comments remained unanswered.

Kerkar’s name also surfaced in the 2021 Pandora Papers investigation of The Indian Express in collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

According to the Pandora Papers, Peter Kerkar owned two BVI trusts and was connected to at least half a dozen offshore firms.

It also disclosed that between September 2015 and October 2016, Kerkar, through Castleman Management, became guarantor to a $45-million loan by Cayman Islands-based SSG Secured Lending Opportunities to Kubber Investment (Mauritius) Pvt Ltd, a shareholder of Cox and Kings.

Kubber Investments is also being probed by the ED for allegedly siphoning around $15 million from the sale proceeds of Holiday Break Education Limited (HBEL), a UK subsidiary of Cox and Kings. The HBEL was sold for Rs 4387 crore in 2018.

In the Cyprus Confidential data, there is also a “funded participation agreement” between SSG Secured Lending Opportunities I, L.P. (Granter) and Global Aerospace Limited (Participant) dated September 20, 2017 which states: “Facilities agreement dated March 22, 2016 to be entered into between, among others, Kubber Investments (Mauritius) Pvt. Ltd. as the borrower, Ajay Ajit Peter Kerkar as initial guarantor and SSG Secured Lending Opportunities I, L.P. as lenders, as amended and restated on March 17, 2017 and further amended on September 14, 2017 (“Credit Agreement”).” It was for a total of $25 million.

The data show that, on September 20, 2017, one of the directors of Global Aerospace wrote, “I, Giorgos Georgiou, acting as Director of the Company hereby confirm that the source of all funds invested into SSG Secured Lending Opportunities I, L.P. are derived from the business activities of Global Aerospace Limited whose ultimate beneficial owner is Mr Eliyahou Allalouf.”