he National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has rejected ₹1,200-crore offer by former promoters of Essar Power Jharkhand Ltd (EPJL) for one-time settlement with the lenders and take the debt-ridden company out of insolvency proceedings.

After the Committee of Creditors (CoC) of EPJL, in which ICICI Bank has over 90 per cent voting rights, declined the ₹1,200-crore settlement proposal against a total debt ranging around ₹5,600 crore, a two-member bench of NCLT headed by Justice MM Kumar rejected promoter’s offer.

“A proposal made by the ex-promoter/director pursuant to the direction issued on March 11, 2019 and subsequently clarified by filing one affidavit dated May 16, 2019 does not find favour of the ICICI Bank-Financial Creditor who constitutes 99.34 per cent voting share of the CoC,” said NCLT. It further said: “There are plausible reasons given for not accepting the proposal. Accordingly, we are unable to accept any such proposal and the same is hereby rejected.”

On March 11, NCLT had allowed Essar Power promoters to file a revised proposal to the resolution professional of EPJL, which was supposed to place it before in a CoC meeting for consideration.

Earlier, the promoters had offered ₹900 crore.

EPJL, a step-down subsidiary of Essar Power, is setting up 1,200-MW coal fired power plant at Chandwa in Latehar district of the State.

Its promoters had offered to settle the amount with the lenders under Section 12 (A) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Act and take the company out of insolvency.

ICICI Bank has 99.34 per cent votes in CoC and had not agreed with the proposal, hence the NCLT rejected the offer.

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