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The Supreme Court on Thursday transferred Binani Cement's Operational Creditors’ (OC) plea to the Chief Justice of India's court, which will now come up for hearing on April 23.
The apex court hear a petition filed by Binani Operational Creditors Forum (BOCF), a body formed to fight for the OCs rights, seeking an ad-interim stay and audit of the resolution process, Hitesh Bindal, a spokesperson for the Forum, told BusinessLine .
The OCs — mainly micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) — had sought an ad-interim stay on the ongoing proceedings stating that the company owes them a total of ₹700 crore, while the Insolvency Resolution Professional (IRP) pegged it at ₹503.37 crore.
However, the actual payment that the OCs will get stands at a meagre ₹150 crore, a BOCF spokesperson said. Binani Cement had a total of 3,000 OCs.
UltraTech urges NCLT to reject resolution plan
Kolkata Bureau adds
UltraTech Cement on Thursday urged the Kolkata Bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to reject the resolution plan of Dalmia Bharat-controlled Rajputana Properties and accept its revised bid for the stressed Binani Cement.
UltraTech submitted its revised bid on March 8, nearly a week after Rajputana Properties was declared the highest bidder (H1).
According to Mukul Rohatgi, senior advocate representing UltraTech, the Tribunal might also consider passing an interim order asking the lender's committee to reconsider offers made by both Dalmia and UltraTech.
As per the latest offer, Ultratech has agreed to pay ₹7,960 crore for the stressed Binani Cement, while Dalmia's resolution plan, which was approved by the Committe of Creditors (CoC) at a meeting on March 14 offered to pay ₹6,589 crore.
While UltraTech’s offer would settle statutory dues of all creditors, including unsecured lenders and operational creditors, under Dalmia’s plan some lenders like Exim Bank have to take a hair cut of close to 30 per cent. Even the operational creditors allege that they would only stand to get ₹150 crore under the Dalmia deal, as against their total exposure of close to ₹700 crore.
The NCLT has the “supervisory power” and it replaces High Court, so it has all powers to see that ultimately maximum money is realised, Rohatgi said.
UltraTech also questioned the evaluation criteria for selection of the highest bidder (H1).
CoC meeting flawed
Terming the CoC meeting of March 14 as flawed, Rohatgi requested for a fresh meeting where both the parties are heard to ensure ‘maximizstion of the value of asset’.
According to him, the NCLT has the ‘over-riding power’ to approve or reject a resolution plan.
“If the process is flawed or if the plan does not take into account the interest of all stakeholders then the NCLT has the right to refuse the plan. It can also tell the CoC to consider afresh or take into account the revised offer (in this case by UltraTech) to ensure maximisation of proceeds to get the best value,” he argued.
The matter will come up for hearing on April 20.
However, the CoC counsel, Pratap Chatterjee, had in an earlier hearing, argued that it went by the ‘rules laid down in the process document and the CVC (Central Vigilance Commission) guidelines’, while negotiating with Dalmia.
Chatterjee had also pointed out that if the revised bid by UltraTech was considered, it will set a ‘precedent’ and might prove to be detrimental to the timely closure of insolvency proceedings initiated against several other companies across the country.
The 270-day moratorium period for Binani Cement ends on April 21.
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