Liberty House Offers Over Rs 26,000 Crore For Bhushan Power And Steel
Tata Steel Ltd. and JSW Steel Ltd left behind in the race for Bhushan.
U.K.-based Liberty House has offered over Rs 26,000 crore for acquiring the stressed assets of Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd., leading Tata Steel Ltd. and JSW Steel Ltd. in the race, a person familiar with the matter said.
The National Company Law Tribunal has asked Bhushan Power lenders, led by Punjab National Bank, to consider the bid submitted by Liberty House for the debt-ridden company. It owes about Rs 45,000 crore to the lenders.
Tata Steel had earlier offered Rs 17,000 crore to the lenders as upfront amount and Rs 7,200 crore for operations of Bhushan Power. JSW Steel made an offer of Rs 11,000 crore to the lenders and Rs 2,000 crore for the operations of the beleaguered power firm.
The committee of creditors will meet again next week and take a call on the rebidding.
Allowing the plea of Liberty House, NCLT had earlier directed the CoC to complete its resolution proceedings by June 23. The tribunal's order came after a petition filed by Liberty House, challenging the rejection of its bid by Bhushan Power’s resolution professional on account of late submission. Liberty House had moved the NCLT on Feb. 26 against the rejection.
The CoC had in February rejected Liberty House's bid to acquire Bhushan Power.
Liberty House had submitted before the NCLT that the resolution professional rejected its bid to acquire the debt-laden company without even opening the seal of its offer.
Bhushan Power was among the 12 non-performing accounts referred by the Reserve Bank for NCLT proceedings. The insolvency process was filed by SBI, the lead bank of the consortium of lenders, in the case of Bhushan Steel. A similar plea was filed by Punjab National Bank against Bhushan Power and Steel.