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In a new twist to the Binani Cement insolvency saga, a clutch of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) has filed an intervention petition against the debt-laden firm’s Insolvency Resolution Professional (IRP) and the Committee of Creditors (CoC).
The petition, filed on Monday before the National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT) Kolkata bench, would be the first such intervention sought against IRP and CoC in the tribunal’s history.
The MSMEs, who are operational creditors of Binani Cement, has accused the IRP of meting out “unfair and unjust” treatment and alleged that their claims went unheeded. The petition will come up for hearing on March 22.
“The applicants are aggrieved... that their legal, valid, just and bona fide claims, which are substantiated with sufficient proofs and documents, are illegally... ignored by the IRP and CoC so that all the benefits could be passed on only to the financial creditors of the corporate debtor,” the MSMEs said in the petition, a copy of which was reviewed by BusinessLine .
Eight MSMEs — Shri Khemisati Polysacks, Balaji Roadlines, Vipul Marketing, Shama Enterprise, Ganpati Plastfab, Sai Shraddha Corp, Jay Enterprise and Shree Ganpatlal Onkarlal Agarwal — have sought a say in the tribunal’s proceedings. The operational creditors had supplied coal, packaging bags and provided transportation and sales support to Binani Cement.
The petitioners are also seeking “to secure or ensure that the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process balances the interest of all operational creditors.” They also want “an effective check on the financial creditors.”
“There is a lot of discrepancies and our claims have not been properly dealt with,” SK Singhi, lawyer for the MSMEs said.
In the NCLT filing, the MSMEs are listed as claiming a total of ₹37.02 crore from Binani Cement. However, according to the creditors, the company owes ₹700 crore to operational creditors.
“This was the first application. We will file another application after the hearing of this petition. We are small MSMEs and the petition is to ensure that our capital is not wiped off, multiple non-performing assets and NCLT petitions don’t arise,” Ashok Pabuwal, one of the operational creditors, said.
Impact on UltraTech deal
NCLT had appointed Vijaykumar V Iyer of consultants Deloitte India as the IRP to deal with Binani’s stressed assets. UltraTech has filed a complaint against the IRP claiming that its higher bid for Binani Cement was not considered by the IRP, who instead declared a rival Dalmia Bharat as the successful bidder.
Taking a neutral stand on this dispute, the operational creditors said they have no issues if Binani Cement is sold to UltraTech or Dalmia Bharat as long as their interests are “safeguarded”. “We have full faith in the judiciary system,” Pabuwal added.
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