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Bhushan Power Lenders Back JSW's $2.7 Billion Offer

Creditors of Bhushan Power & Steel are poised to name JSW Steel as the preferred bidder in a sale.

Bhushan Power Lenders Back JSW's $2.7 Billion Offer
An employee cuts a sample from a roll of coiled steel inside Liberty House Group’s rolling steel mill in Newport, U.K. (Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Creditors of Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd., a major debt-laden Indian mill, are poised to name JSW Steel Ltd. as the preferred bidder in a sale seen as a key test of the country’s new bankruptcy law, people familiar with the matter said.

A majority of Bhushan Power’s lenders selected the JSW proposal as the best offer, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. JSW bid about 196 billion rupees ($2.7 billion), higher than rivals Tata Steel Ltd. and Liberty House Group, Bloomberg News reported in August.

Bhushan Power, one of the first 12 assets shortlisted by the central bank to be sold through the insolvency resolution process, had claims of about 485 billion rupees admitted by the bankruptcy court. The resolution plan submitted by JSW Steel needs approval from Indian courts for the deal to be finalized, and the bidding process remains the subject of legal challenges.

A representative for JSW Steel declined to comment, while an email sent to the resolution professional overseeing the insolvency process wasn’t immediately answered.

To contact the reporters on this story: Saloni Shukla in Mumbai at sshukla72@bloomberg.net;Swansy Afonso in Mumbai at safonso2@bloomberg.net;George Smith Alexander in Mumbai at galexander11@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Scent at bscent@bloomberg.net, ;Andrew Monahan at amonahan@bloomberg.net, ;Jason Rogers at jrogers73@bloomberg.net, Jeanette Rodrigues

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