The NCLAT (National Company Law Appellate Tribunal) has recently given the green light to the Aditya Birla group firm Ultratech Cement’s revised bid for the debt-ridden company Binani Cement.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the two-member bench of NCLAT, led by Chairperson Justice S J Mukhopadhaya, accepted UltraTech’s resolution plan and rejected the plan submitted by the rival Dalmia Bharat group’s firm Rajputana Properties by saying that the plan was “unbalanced’ and “discriminatory” against some financial creditors.
Reportedly, earlier on July 2, the Court had transferred all the matters associated with Binani Cement’s corporate insolvency resolution process to the appellate tribunal from Kolkata’s National Company Law Tribunal. The Supreme court had ordered that NCLAT to hear the case of daily basis.
As reported by the Bloomberg Quint, the UltraTech’s bid that was challenged under Section 29A of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. Section 29A, for the record, puts down the ineligibility criteria for resolution applicants. Before Kolkata NCLT, the Bank of Baroda had initiated the insolvency proceedings over Binani Cement.
As per sources, UltraTech’s first bid was less than Dalmia Group’s offer and the CoC had decided to only confer with the highest bidding party. They cite that UltraTech had attempted for the revision of the offer for Binani, but was not permitted to do so the resolution professionals and the creditors’ committee.
UltraTech Cement’s revised proposal was at Rs 7,900 crore, against its previous bid of Rs 7,200 crore. For those uninitiated, UltraTech Cement was the second-highest bidder and had managed with an improved offer, backed by Binani Cement’s promoters.
It has been reported that Rajputana Properties had appealed to the Apex court against the ruling of the lenders of Binani to consider the revised bid submitted by UltraTech. The committee of creditors had also demanded Rajputana Properties to amend its Rs 6,930 crore offer.