I wrote this as a comment on some other post but then thought of making it a post.

I have been to a slaughterhouse and I was shocked beyond belief to see the atrocities committed on animals. I got to know that people working there suffer from PTSD because the cruelty is way too much.

I am not against non-vegetarianism but I am against cruel conditions under which animals live before being slaughtered. We need to be more humane towards them so that they atleast don't suffer before being killed.

Why are so less compassionate towards animals? Why? I understand food chain and whatever but for the lack of better word, why can't we make slaughter less painful. I got to know that in western countries animals are made unconscious before being killed so that they don't suffer a lot.

Every time I see a truck carrying hens, I see pain in their eyes as they are mishandled in the most cruel way.

I am not asking you to become vegetarian but what I am asking is that there is no harm in lessening animals pain before consuming them.

I'm 18M & a 2D animator just ordered from Flipkart a XP-Pen Artist 22r pro graphic tablet worth rupees 51k but instead they send me a XP-Pen deco Fun L pen tab which is worth 4k rupees, every time I'm calling Flipkart customer service to state the issue that i received the wrong product they are always saying "we are passing this issue to higher authorities" but they are doing nothing about it, so i handed the phone to my elder sister she spoke with the senior multiple times but they are not even initiating a pickup of the wrong product i received and pickup policy of Flipkart is only for 7 days.

​

Flipkart Investigative team called me yesterday morning & asked me to send all my details Adhaar and photos of the wrong product i received so i send them those all the details & images they mentioned and still they are not even initiating a pickup of the wrong product they send me, It's been 3 days

​

Somewhere i read on Quora that Flipkart never wants to refund the faulty/wrong products to people which gets oversighted they just wants to keep moving the dates further, so the product becomes invalid for refund policy. This made me a very nervous and anxietal because 50k is not a petty amount that is stuck, my dad died in Covid-19 & buying this from his Pension. what should i do now ?

1: Don't buy from flipkart (Just Don't)

2: While shopping on amazon look for "Amazon Fulfilled" Sold by "Appario retail pvt ltd" or "Cocoblu retail" significantly reduces your options but also significantly reduces your chance of getting scammed.

3: Shop using credit card. Easier to chargeback using cc.

4: Never trust reviews. 20rs cashback is enough to bribe users to get 5 star rating in India.

5: Make a twitter account. It's faster to get your issue resolved on social media compared to customer care chat and calling.

So, I'm 22 just out of college. I never wanted to go Delhi for job due to obviously how unsafe it is . But in current company, software teams operate only there, so I'm left with no choice. Plus my hometown is also near to Delhi.

But I'm really scared about the safety issues. I feel it's best to stay in your room at night.I have stayed in Bangalore for 6 months, but never experienced such things except rapido.

Please share your advice and I'm really sorry if I hurt delhites sentiments. I'm just concerned.

I often wonder what kind of parents these TV news anchors are. Do their children consume the content their parents deliver? The content is often biased, hateful or illogical. Do you think these anchors ever get questioned by their children?

I understand that these anchors get paid enough to provide for their families and more, and that is all that matters for their children at the end of day. But once the children are old enough to realize that their parents are a bunch of hate-mongering scumbags (irrespective of which side of political spectrum they lean towards), do they still have the same respect for them?

A little bit (maybe a lot) about myself: An average kid born into a middle class household. A kid who used to cry himself to sleep for stealing 10rs to buy a cricket ball and losing the ball the same day.

Born into family that never got along with each other - constant fights within the family, an absent drunkard father, suicidal mother who killed herself when I was 12 after multiple suicide attempts, father who remarried without telling you a word - though that marriage didn't last long, younger brother who grew up in a hostel - no proper relationship with him, relatives who only give a shit when things are bleak. Abusive aunt and grandmother who tried to control everything I did, oh yeah my father passed away 4years back of a heart attack. Basically I was a kid who grew up finding solace through internet and TV.

I'm 25 year old now, permenantly moved out of the shithole called home. Completed engineering but found passion in filmmaking and have nearly 3-4 years of experience working in the corporate sector of this field. I recently got diagnosed with schizophrenia and am presently admitted to a mental hospital after a psychotic episode. Have made few really good friends in college who are my backbone, whom I can rely on to an extent.

Here I'm stuck in a mental hospital, about to be discharged in a few days, trying to look for some hope for my future.

An orphan who can't go back home because that place is too traumatic. I'm moving into a PG with my friend, hoping to get a job or regular freelance work to keep me surviving. Hopefully I get a job soon. Have made some terrible financial decision lately so fucked in that regard too. My career which is my only hope right now, isn't exactly where I want it to be. The hope is to be working on movie sets but I'm far from it. No contacts in the movie industry.

So yeah, that's me. A person whose life has been a uphill battle, whose path got more steep with the diagnosis of schizophrenia. I don't know how long will my congnitive abilities hold me up. I don't know how much worse my mental health will get. I can't live through another psychosis and hospitalization, but that's not in my control I guess. Basically I'm at my wit's end, trying to survive.

Do you guys see any hope in my bleak life?

Greetings, fellow Redditors!

Today, I would like to initiate a discourse on an insidious attitude that pervades our community and, by extension, our society. A toxic undercurrent that masquerades as righteous indignation but is, in fact, a manifestation of deeply rooted insecurity and envy.

We've all noticed the comments, the snide remarks that masquerade as banter. When an individual posts a photo of their new car or a fine meal, these elements hastily crawl out of the woodwork to belittle and undermine the achievement. They taunt with passive-aggressive comments, suggesting unearned wealth, decrying the person as a pampered offspring or an illegal money churner. The scorn they pour onto people enjoying the fruits of their labour is disturbing and reprehensible.

Moreover, they delight in their mediocre circumstances, brandishing their struggles like badges of honour, as if poverty were a virtuous aspiration and not a systemic failing. This is not a call to ignore our societal issues but to dismantle the misplaced pride some harbour in refusing to rise above them.

Remember, it is not noble to stagnate, nor is it a virtue to resent those who strive. Success is not a crime, and it should not invite scorn. Let us not romanticise poverty nor demonise affluence.

To those of you who continue to thrive amidst adversity and who continue to scale the ladder of success, I extend my most profound admiration. You stand as beacons of aspiration, and your victories should be celebrated, not criticised. Do not let the bitter grumblings of a resentful few diminish your accomplishments. Stand tall, stay strong, and continue to succeed.

The culture of envy, masked as virtuous modesty, is nothing more than a salve for personal inadequacy. It's high time we recognise these sour grapes for what they are: expressions of a failure to compete in the race of life, a flimsy excuse for personal inadequacy. And such an attitude deserves not our sympathy but our collective condemnation.

Let this be a reminder for all of us to check our attitudes. Are we promoting a culture of growth and success, or are we wallowing in the self-satisfying mire of resentment and failure?

Let us elevate our discourse, celebrate achievements, and support each other in pursuing success. It is only through such mutual upliftment that we, as a society, can indeed prosper.

Disclaimer: This post is not intended to belittle anyone's personal circumstances but to challenge certain harmful attitudes. Always remember that everyone has their own journey and pace in life, and success is highly subjective. Be kind, be empathetic, and strive for personal growth.

Original Source: https://boringmoney.in/p/byjus-is-sued-by-its-lenders

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Four years ago I read an article in The Ken titled The making of a loan crisis at Byju’s. The gist of the story was that Byju’s was an edtech doing phenomenally well selling its digital courses to parents of young students. But these courses were expensive and these parents were poor. So it was also selling them loans to buy these courses. Only, without telling them. Parents would expect a course (which could be cancelled) but would end up with a loan (which couldn’t be cancelled).

Three days ago, Byju’s went to court in New York. Here’s the headline from TechCrunch: Byju’s sues ‘predatory’ lenders on $1.2B term loan, won’t make further payments.

Byju’s is a company that, arguably, made a business out of giving out predatory loans. Now it’s sued its own lenders and accused them of being predatory. I’m not saying that this is poetic justice but.. okay, scratch that. This is poetic justice! If Shakespeare were a finance writer this is the kind of stuff he would come up with.

Everyone wants to lend to Byju’s

In 2021, interest rates were low, loans were cheap. Tech startups were doing great, edtech startups were crushing it. Byju’s, not one to be left behind, had raised a lot of money but money was cheap so it also wanted to borrow. It wanted a $500 million loan from lenders in the US, which it wanted to use to acquire companies there. Instead, it ended up borrowing more than double—$1.2 billion—because lenders practically wanted to throw money at this overachieving edtech startup from India. [1]

The way a term loan such as this works is:

1. A company goes to an investment bank and asks for a loan
2. The bank syndicates this loan to investors, who become the lenders. Everyone comes together in a room and negotiates the specifics of the loan (which can be quite complex, as we’ll see)
3. The loan goes through and everyone’s happy. Presumably, the company likes its lenders, the lenders like the company
4. The original investors might sell the loans they own to other investors. The company’s only talking to an administrative agent representing the lenders, so over time it might not even know who its lenders are

In November 2021, prominent investment managers such as Blackstone, Fidelity and GIC had gone overboard to lend money to Byju’s. By September 2022, Byju’s lenders were desperately selling [2] their loans at a 36% discount on the principal. (Today, Byju’s debt is at a 20% discount, which is also bad.)

It’s likely that Blackstone, Fidelity and other of the OG lenders aren’t Byju’s’ lenders any more. They’ve almost certainly sold off their loans at a loss. Better get paid something than get paid nothing.

Dealers of the dead

If a company’s debt is being sold at a 36% discount, it’s because investors think that the company is unlikely to repay its loans. If you buy such a loan, you potentially stand to gain a lot—because of the discount—but well, you might also just lose everything.

If you’re a regular investment management company, like Blackstone, you don’t want to invest in such a loan. Your investors gave you this money to get predictable returns. If they wanted risk, they’d ask you to buy stocks. You don’t want to get into a fight with your borrower. If you feel they will not pay you back, you take a loss, sell the loans, move on.

If you’re a distressed debt investor, your entire business is to buy such distressed loans from regular investment managers like Blackstone. You’re going to get nasty borrowers who are unlikely to want to repay their loans but that’s okay. Because you’re nasty too. You spend less time on financial models, more in courts and around lawyers. You like to fight to get your money back. Sometimes you might lose, but the times you win, you win big. The wins cover your losses and some more.

Blackstone and the others sold Byju’s’ loans in desperation, and they were almost certainly bought by distressed debt investors. We don’t know who they are exactly, but Byju’s has indicated that one of them is Redwood Capital, a New York-based distressed debt investor.

If you’re a distressed debt investor, this is how it works:

1. You get a loan for super cheap
2. If the company repays its loan, great! You make a lot of money
3. But the company isn’t likely to repay, which is why you got the loan for cheap in the first place
4. So it’s in your best interest to not let the company die a slow death. Instead, you want to kill the company quick. You take the company to court ASAP and take all the money you’re owed while it’s still there

If the new investors waited, say, for a year, and took Byju’s to court after it had actually defaulted on its repayments—there might not be any money left! Byju’s may have given all the money to Lionel Messi or maybe laundered it away someplace the lenders wouldn’t find it. If you’re a distressed debt investor, you want to get Byju’s to court and get the court to force it to do whatever it takes to pay you back.

Last month, Byju’s’ new lenders sued Byju’s in the Delaware Court of Chancery [3]. We’ll get to the official reasons for this lawsuit in a bit, but what’s important is that Byju’s was not being sued because it defaulted on a payment. It hadn’t. It was being sued because the distressed debt investors expect it to default sooner or later, and they would prefer dealing with it sooner rather than later.

Lenders go for the kill

Usually, the finer details of corporate loans such as Byju’s’ aren’t public. But thanks to the multiple lawsuits we know quite a bit here.

The loan was made to Byju’s’ US entity and it was secured with guarantees from multiple Byju’s companies. From Byju’s’ lawsuit this week against its creditors (which I will get to), here are the guarantors:

1. Byju’s entities in India and Singapore
2. Byju’s’ US and Singapore acquisitions; companies including Oros, Epic, Great Learning, and Neuron
3. Whitehat India, Byju’s’ famous Indian acquisition

That’s a lot of companies guaranteeing a loan! Byju’s’ Indian entity is the parent of all the other guarantor companies, so having it as a guarantor should’ve been enough. I guess the rationale here was that it would be nice to have some non-Indian companies in the mix too, we do know how efficiently Indian courts work.

Apart from Byju’s the parent company itself, Whitehat was the only other Indian company guaranteeing this loan. The problem was that Whitehat itself, on paper, had negative net worth. It had probably taken loans of its own and did not have enough assets to cover them. In practice, this would be irrelevant, because Whitehat was owned by Byju’s and it would cover any of Whitehat’s liabilities. But, apparently, RBI regulations require Indian companies with negative net worth to take its approval before guaranteeing a loan. So even though Whitehat was a guarantor, the guarantee was meaningless until RBI granted its approval.

Yeah, well, RBI didn’t grant its approval. From the lawsuit:

Plaintiffs, Borrower, and Lenders had a call on or around October 6, 2022, to discuss the Whitehat Guarantee. In a good faith effort to negate any impact of the new regulations, Plaintiffs and the Borrower offered to move all assets out of Whitehat India into other subsidiaries of the Parent Guarantor that are Guarantors to the Credit Agreement, or are owned by Guarantors of the Credit Agreement.
Lenders rejected this proposal without justification.

In October 2022, after Byju’s’ debt was already sold to the distressed debt investors, the company spoke to its lenders and informed them that it was unable to get RBI’s approval for Whitehat to be a guarantor. Instead, it offered to move Whitehat’s assets into other companies and then use those companies to guarantee the loan. Which would really have been the same thing. But the lenders refused! Why?!

Continuing from the lawsuit:

Lenders subsequently asserted that an event of default under Section 8.1(e) of the Credit Agreement (an “Event of Default”) had occurred due to the failure to procure the Whitehat Guarantee.

Oh, that’s why. Byju’s’ lenders—distressed debt investors that wanted Byju’s dead ASAP—used the fact that Whitehat couldn’t be a guarantor of this loan to claim a default and use it as a reason to take Byju’s to court in the US. Honestly, I’m impressed. The Whitehat guarantee was redundant to begin with, but the lenders had found an out and their official reason #1 to take Byju’s to court.

Oh, there’s another thing. In June 2022, The Ken reported that Byju’s’ financials for 2021 had been held up by its auditors because of certain, umm, creative accounting. By this time, Byju’s should have ideally filed even its 2022 financials. It was very late! From the lawsuit:

The FY’21 Audit was delivered to the Lenders on August 30, 2022. It did not contain a “going concern” qualification or any similar qualifications about the Parent Guarantor’s ability to continue into the future.
However, the FY’22 Audit could not begin until the FY’21 Audit had been completed, and the Parent Guarantor’s business has continued to grow rapidly

Byju’s’ 2021 financials were held up because auditors weren’t giving the company their go ahead, so of course its 2022 financials were held up as well.

On or around August 29, 2022, Shearman & Sterling, LLP (“S&S”), counsel for GLAS, sent a letter to Byju’s Alpha and Think & Learn requesting certain financial disclosures from Plaintiffs and Borrower, and asserting that the failure to deliver this financial information was a breach of the Credit Agreement.
...
Rather than actually suffering any damage from the delayed FY’22 audit, Lenders opportunistically used this unintentional and non-material delay to exert pressure on Plaintiffs and the Borrower to extract onerous economic concessions.

I love it! Byju’s’ financials were delayed. Its agreement with the original lenders said that the company must share its audited financials with them. Byju’s wasn’t able to do that. The lenders found their official reason #2 to take Byju’s to court.

Byju’s sets up an offence

Before the lenders sued Byju’s last month, Byju’s tried its best to negotiate a deal. It gave the lenders an assurance of the company’s financial health, gave them concessions worth “tens of millions of dollars” and requested (pleaded) to take back their claims of Byju’s defaulting.

The lenders refused. They asked for either the full principal back or two-thirds of it, with an increment of 7% (!!) in the interest rate. Byju’s, of course, said no.

At this point, Byju’s knew that the lenders weren’t going to negotiate realistically. So it prepared its own offence. From the lawsuit:

The Credit Agreement prohibits transfers or assignments of the Lenders’ interests in the Term Loans to “Disqualified Lenders.”
The Credit Agreement includes in its definition of Disqualified Lender “[a]ny [] Person (including an Affiliate or Approved Fund of a Lender) whose primary activity is the trading or acquisition of distressed debt,” and “those banks, financial institutions and other Persons separately identified by name . . . on or before the syndication . . . (which may be updated . . . from time to time . . .)”

In its agreement with the original lenders, Byju’s had put in a clause restricting its loan from being transferred to distressed debt investors. This is a risky clause to agree with, because it’s only these folks that buy loans that turn sour, but the original lenders had gone with it.

On information and belief, the entire course of Lenders’, and Defendant’s, bad-faith conduct has been driven by these distressed-debt lenders, who were never meant to have been lenders in the first place, and who acted with the intent of causing harm to Borrower and Plaintiffs. Meanwhile, Borrowers and Plaintiffs were initially unaware that the lenders were in fact being controlled by distressed debt dealers, and were therefore unable to take action to prevent their bad-faith plan from being implemented.

In its lawsuit this week, the crux of Byju’s’ argument is based on the fact that its loan is owned by distressed debt investors who were not eligible to be owning its debt in the first place. Also interesting is that Byju’s doesn’t seem to know who these lenders are. In its post-lawsuit statement, Byju’s named Redwood as one of the lenders, but it’s not named anywhere in the lawsuit.

Now what?

If push comes to shove, does Byju’s have the cash to pay off its lenders?

Last month, Byju’s transferred $500 million out of its US entity. The lenders had filed their lawsuit and there was a chance the court would freeze Byju’s’ US entity’s assets, so this was a precautionary move. So Byju’s has this $500 million. But that seems about it. Byju’s has been in the news saying that it’s trying to raise $700 million to pay off its debt. Yeah, between the horrible edtech market and the colourful lawsuits Byju’s is in, good luck with getting investors to donate their money to Byju’s.

But of course, Byju’s is now suing its lenders too. It does have an agreement that says that its debt can’t be held by distressed debt investors. So it’s not a frivolous suit.

Can Byju’s win? Sure. It would still have to pay its debt eventually. And it’s not straightforward. There are probably tens or even hundreds of lenders. It’s apparent that the distressed debt investors are the guiding force behind the lenders’ lawsuit, but it’s definitely not necessary that they form the majority of the lenders. In which case, Byju’s’ whole lawsuit falls apart.

The lenders are saying Byju’s defaulted by not keeping its part of the agreement, even though it had technically paid its dues. [4] Byju’s is saying that the lenders shouldn’t be the lenders in the first place and must be disqualified. We’ll see who’s right.

Footnotes

[1] It was a 5-year loan with a floating interest rate of 6% over Libor. Think of it as 6% over this magical interest-rate called Libor that some fancy-pants banks set amongst themselves everyday. Back in November 2021, Libor was at 0.25% and this was a 6.86% interest loan for Byju’s (the floor for Libor was 0.75%). Today, Libor is at about 5.64% and it’s an 11.6% loan.

[2] Multiple reasons for the investors to sell. One, interest rates went up and cash became more dear. If they had money stuck with Byju’s, it was money not being lent out to someone else. Second, edtech all around the world was in trouble. Kids were back in school and people didn’t think much of them anymore. Third, Byju’s as a company was showing its red flags.

[3] What a cool name!

[4] Until now, that is. Byju’s filed its lawsuit this week the same day it was supposed to make a $40 million interest payment.

Original Source: https://boringmoney.in/p/byjus-is-sued-by-its-lenders

Hi , I'm 18Yo Student i live with my mom we're struggling from past 2 years I'm so helpless and lost now i dont know what should i do , My father passed away and my mom doing a job , we already paid around 11lakh (13k$) we've sold our house and took a loan from bank to pay it monthly payment of the loan taking our whole salary, they are abusing and threatening us from past 2 years we dont have any way to pay it my mother's health condition also not good they come to our rented house for money and abuse us also threat my mom , i cant even describe the situation here we cant even sleep in fear or eat anything crying everyday i am also not getting a part time job which pays well , PLEASE tell me what should i do i need of money any donation we want to get out of this mess and live a normal life i want to save my mom please help us.