SEPC's ₹149.5 Cr court dispute settled with no cash outflow; attachments on ₹154 Cr of receivables lifted

Before the market opened on October 1, SEPC told the exchanges that the Madras High Court had, by a Common Order dated September 30, 2026, terminated a set of execution petitions against it — some pending since 2023 — after the award holders and the judgment debtors filed a Joint Memo of Compromise settling all their disputes for a total consideration of ₹149.5 crore. Per the filing, SEPC's direct monetary outflow is nil, attachments on ₹154 crore of receivables stand removed with immediate effect, and restrictions on its banking operations have been completely raised.

The petitioners were GPE (India) Ltd and GPE JV1 Ltd, both registered in Mauritius, and Gaja Trustee Company Private Limited as trustee of Gaja Capital India Fund-I. The judgment debtors were Twarit Consultancy Services Private Limited (Judgment Debtor No.1) and SEPC Limited, formerly Shriram EPC Limited (Judgment Debtor No.2); Orient Green Power Company Limited appears as a respondent in one petition. The petitions' prayers sought attachment of monies to the extent of ₹2,83,41,80,550 (₹283.4 crore) with interest in E.P. 91 of 2023 and E.P. 7 of 2024, and ₹3,03,84,10,032 (₹303.8 crore) with interest in E.P. 15 and 16 of 2025 — with garnishee notices across more than twenty bank branches, from Axis Bank and Punjab National Bank to SBI, ICICI and Yes Bank. That garnishee list is what the lifted "restrictions on banking operations" refer to.

The mechanics of the payout are specified in the order itself: the ₹147 crore demand draft goes to the Registrar General, to be kept in an interest-bearing account and paid to the petitioners on a memo being filed by them, in the proportion indicated in paragraph 11 of the joint memo; the ₹2.5 crore in fixed deposits with the court is paid out the same way. The underlying liability traces to a SIAC arbitration award to the same GPE/Gaja petitioners: SEPC's results filing for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 discloses that under a 2015 inter-se arrangement, Twarit Consultancy Services Private Limited (Judgment Debtor No.1) undertook to fully indemnify SEPC against this award and had already remitted ₹164.5 crore, including interest, toward it, alongside a slower court-affidavit payment plan of ₹2.5 crore upfront plus ₹7.5 crore a quarter — a plan the September 30 lump-sum settlement supersedes.

Scale matters here. The ₹154 crore of receivables now freed is equivalent to roughly 15.5% of SEPC's ₹990 crore market capitalisation — and for an EPC company, receivables under court attachment and garnished bank accounts are a working-capital constraint, not just a legal footnote. The settlement closes petitions that sought attachment of amounts around twice what was ultimately paid, and the filing states the payment itself does not come from SEPC. This reads as the removal of an operational overhang; what it does not do is change the P&L, which showed a consolidated net loss last quarter.

The first session's reaction was modest: the stock closed at ₹5.09 on October 1, up 1.4% from the previous close of ₹5.02, on 3.7 million shares — the lightest volume in the 60-session window. The broader tape is the context: ₹5.09 is 58.4% below the 52-week adjusted high of ₹12.24 (October 3, 2025) and 9.5% above the 52-week low of ₹4.65 (March 23, 2026). The stock has drifted from ₹6.45 in early July to around ₹5 through September. One session is not a verdict on a structural event — but the market's opening take was measured, not euphoric.

The operating picture is similarly two-sided. Q1 FY27 consolidated revenue came in at ₹273.80 crore against ₹202.28 crore a year earlier — growth of about 35% on the filed numbers; the company's own August 12 press release was titled "SEPC Reports 40% YoY Revenue Growth in June Quarter Despite Overseas Margin Headwinds." But below the line, a pre-tax profit of ₹13.17 crore was overwhelmed by a tax charge of ₹24.22 crore, leaving a consolidated net loss of ₹11.05 crore. The freed receivables arrive at a company that is growing its top line but not yet converting it into profit.

Two more data points frame the quarter ahead. The shareholding pattern shows promoter holding fell from 19.16% (36.32 crore shares) as of March 31, 2026 to 11.82% (22.70 crore shares) as of June 30, 2026; the filings in this window do not state the reason. And the trading window for designated persons closed on October 1 and stays closed until 48 hours after the Q2 FY27 results — the next scheduled look at whether the unlocked receivables show up in the working-capital numbers.