Comments
The National Company Law Tribunal, Chennai, on Monday dismissed the petitions of 25 applicants seeking consolidation and simultaneous Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process in relation to corporate debtors of the defunct wind turbine manufacturer Regen Powertech Pvt Ltd and its wholly-owned subsidiary Regen Infrastructure and Services .
The applicants were mostly customers of Regen Powertech such as GAIL, TVH Energy Resources and Nupower Renewables.
Regen Powertech was admitted into CIRP by NCLT in December 2019, and an Interim Resolution Professional was appointed. The total claims to financial creditors were ₹1,614 crore. Similarly, its subsidiary was admitted into the CIRP in February 2020 and Renuka Devi Rangaswamy was appointed the IRP.
Nasdaq-listed ReNew Power, a leading renewable energy company, emerged as a successful bidder. It offered ₹167 crore for the company that has cash ₹70 crore and other receivables.
Sources said that as on March 31, 2017, the net asset of Regen Powertech was ₹2,200 crore and after that the company did not file the financials to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. For ₹2,200 crore company, the original amount received through the Resolution Applicant was only ₹90 crore.
The subsidiary, RISPL, was formed to provide operations and maintenance services to the parent company’s customers. Thus, the businesses of the two companies are closely linked. However, they are two separate cases at the NCLT.
The order by R Sucharitha, Member (Judicial) and B Anil Kumar, Member (Technical) observed that all the applicants, except filed by Resolution Professional of RISPL, being customers of either RPPL and RISPL have no locus standi to maintain the present application seeking consolidation or simultaneous CIRP of the corporate debtors. They are neither a financial creditor nor an operational creditor.
In view of the reasoning stated in previous judgements and in the absence of ‘equity’ jurisdiction being vested upon this Tribunal under the provision of IBC, 2016 and in the absence of specific provisions under the IBC, 2016, the Adjudicating Authority is unable to order for consolidation or simultaneous of CIRP of the corporate debtors - RPPL and RISPL - at the fag end of CIRP.
When the resolution plan in respect of RPPL has been approved by the CoC and also the Resolution Plan in respect of RISPL is in the offing, ordering for simultaneous CIRP at this state would amount to gross delay of CIRPL of both the companies.
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.