Highly-valued Indian edtech firm Byju’s is set to make a quarterly interest payment of $40 million for its $1.2 billion loan. 

According to a report by the global news agency Bloomberg, the company has faced a deadline from the investors to make the payment on June 5. If the edtech firm fails to meet the deadline, the $1.2 billion loan will default. 

When asked, Byju’s declined to comment on the coupon payment. The representatives, which were hired by the creditors to advise them on the loan, also denied to make any statement.

The $1.2 billion loan caused some trouble for the edtech giant. Byju Raveendran, the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Byju’s, had been in talks with investors to restructure the $1.2 billion loan. The company also offered to hike the interest rate by 200-300 basis points (BPS). However, creditors scrapped all talks to restructure the loan recently. 

The development came after one of its lenders filed a lawsuit against Byju’s Alpha, a holding company of Byju’s, with an allegation of hiding the $500 million it raised. 

Byju’s has been in the news since the middle of 2022 for the wrong reasons. It attracted criticism for announcing the five per cent rationalisation of its 50,000-strong employee bandwidth. Additionally, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) summoned Raveendran for alleged malpractices conducted by the company’s sales team. Citing a media report, the body stated, " As the Commission has come across a news article wherein it has been pointed out that the sales team of BYJU'S is indulging in malpractices to lure parents to buy their courses for their children. lt has also been mentioned in the news report that some customers have also claimed that they were exploited and deceived, and had put their savings and futures in jeopardy."