Byju’s settles insolvency dispute over ₹5 cr dues with France’s Teleperformance

Byju’s on Wednesday informed the National Company Law Tribunal that it has reached a settlement with France's Teleperformance Business Services, one of the operational creditors of the beleaguered edtech firm.

Following this, Teleperformance has withdrawn its insolvency petition filed against Byju's, a counsel aware of the matter said on condition of anonymity.

A bench led by Justice K. Biswal was hearing a section 9 petition under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, filed by the creditor against Byju’s for defaulting on repayment of dues worth ₹5 crore.

Earlier in April, Teleperformance cited a business agreement that was the basis of the dispute between the two. It was stated that Byju’s started defaulting on the payments from 14 April 2023.

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The edtech company’s default was of ₹5.03 crore along with an interest of 18% per annum, which was duly agreed upon by both the parties.

At the time, Byju’s had acknowledged the default and agreed to a structured payment plan: an initial payment of ₹1.5 crore, followed by subsequent payments of ₹2 crore and ₹2.2 crore.

Since April, the NCLT on various occasions granted both the parties time to reach an amicable settlement for resolving the dispute.

Teleperformance provides business processing outsourcing services to Byju's. Under the agreement, Byju's had contracted the BPO for call centre-related services for the edtech firm.

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Byju's is involved in similar insolvency proceedings with various other operational and financial creditors.

Meanwhile, Byjus’s has challenged an NCLT order of 13 June before the Karnataka High Court, that essentially halted the company’s second rights issue. Byju’s launched the second rights issue after it failed to raise the intended capital it needed in the first rights issue that was scheduled from 29 January to 28 February. The second rights issue was held from 13 May to 13 June. However, the tribunal in its order directed that the company put the funds collected in a separate account after investors petitioned the bankrtuptcy court alleging mismanagement by Think & Learn, the parent company of Byju's.