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The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has directed the Kolkata Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to consider the Binani Cement case only under the provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).
The NCLAT passed the order in New Delhi on Thursday based on a petition filed by Dalmia Bharat Cement.
Mahindra Singhi, Group CEO, Dalmia Bharat Cement, said the company had filed the petition on Wednesday and the present order seals any attempt by Binani Cement to reach an out-of-court settlement with UltraTech Cement. When pointed to the NCLAT order on April 3, which had suggested that creditors consider Binani’s out-of-court plea, Singhi said Dalmia could not make its representation adequately on April 3 as it was not aware that Binani — which had moved the appellate body for some other case — would raise the out-of-court settlement issue.
“The Appellate Tribunal ruling on Thursday has directed NCLT not to get influenced by either its April 3 order or NCLT’s own order on March 23 that directed creditors to consider an out-of-court settlement,” he added.
Quantum of interest
However, Binani Cement is confident of executing the out-of-court deal with UltraTech. It plans to file a revised offer with creditors late on Thursday night, said sources close to the company.
In the Wednesday meeting, some of the creditors had raised the quantum of interest to be charged on Binani’s defaulted loan.
The insolvency case against Binani Cement was filed on July 26, 2017, and the calculation of interest on loan stopped then. Now, if the out-of-court deal is to be accepted, the creditors want to charge interest on the loan since July 26.
As per Binani’s math, the interest would work out to ₹250 crore for the entire 270 days valid period of NCLT proceedings. However, the creditors did not have this figure on Wednesday, and told the company to prepare it. This will be submitted on Thursday night in the tweaked offer, said the sources. Binani hopes to close the deal with creditors for ₹7,500 crore in three days, the sources added.
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