Comments
After JSW Steel, billionaire Anil Agarwal-owned Vedanta has said that its bids placed for Essar Steel should be considered before a final decision is taken.
In a letter written to the Committee of Creditors of Essar Steel, Vedanta has said it would be really unfair on CoC’s part to reject the superior bid submitted by the company after a lot of effort even without considering. JSW Steel had also asked the Essar Steel lenders to consider its bid.
Vedanta had placed its bid in the second round after the CoC rejected the initial bids of Numetal Mauritius and ArcelorMittal. However, the National Company Law Tribunal ordered the CoC to reconsider the first bid placed by Numetal and ArcelorMittal after providing them 30-day time to cure their deficiencies.
The Tribunal also asked the CoC to scrap the bids received in the second round.
Second round
Earlier, JSW Steel — which had tied-up with Numetal in the second round of bidding — had written to CoC asking them to call for a third round from all interested companies.
It also questioned the CoC’s decision to restrict the second round of bidding only to companies that have placed Expression of Interest at the start of bidding process.
Meanwhile, the lenders of Essar Steel met on Friday but did not take any final decision. Some bankers are understood to have taken a view to go by the NCLT’s order to review the bids submitted by Numetal and ArcelorMittal. This could dampen the chances of Vedanta and JSW Steel. However, other bankers on the CoC are still in favour of inviting fresh bids.
NCLAT hearing
In another development, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has agreed to hear on May 17 the petitions filed by Numetal Ltd and ArcelorMittal, challenging eligibility criteria.
The NCLAT issued notices to a committee of Essar Steel creditors, the resolution professional running an auction of the company and the two bidders on the cross petitions. Russian VTB Bank-promoted consortium, Numetal Mauritius, had moved the NCLAT on Thursday claiming that ArcelorMittal should not be given 30-days time to cure its deficiency in order to be eligible for acquiring Essar Steel.
Numetal alleged that Arcelor Mittal has placed bid for Essar Steel after the insolvency rules were amended to ban promoters with loan defaults from bidding for stressed assets.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.