Firing a fresh salvo, JSW Steel has written a letter to the Committee of Creditors on Monday to consider the option of calling fresh bids for Essar Steel as observed by the National Company Law Tribunal in its landmark judgment last Friday.

The Ahmedabad Bench of NCLT in its order had observed that resolution professional’s suggestion made to the CoC for inviting bids from all interested parties would have been a sound reasonable and legally transparent option keeping in view of amendment to Section 29 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code when the resolution plan was considered.

While asking the CoC to reconsider the proposals, the Tribunal observed the CoC may relook the option of recalling fresh bids as discussed in its March 21 meeting and take appropriate decision looking to time constrain.

Responding to this suggestion, Seshagiri Rao, Joint Managing Director, JSW Steel, in a letter to the CoC, said the lenders would have done a world of difference then if they had called for bids from all the interested parties rather than restricting it to companies that had submitted expression of interest in the earlier stage.

More competition would not only result in extracting higher value for the stressed asset but also bring in the much-needed transparency in the entire process, said Rao in the letter.

The meeting of CoC to consider the NCLT order was postponed to Tuesday, said sources.

Last month, JSW Steel had written a similar letter to CoC seeking permission to bid for Essar Steel without asking for any additional data, but it was reject as lenders did not want to re-do the entire process for inviting bids right from issuing advertisements in the newspapers.

Having been rejected, JSW Steel joined the race for Essar Steel in the second round by tying-up with Russian VTB Bank-promoted Numetal India consortium, but the NCLT on Friday order CoC to consider the first round of bids and gave 30-days’ time for both ArcelorMittal and Numetal to cure deficiency and prove their eligibility for bidding.

While presence of Rewant Ruia, Essar Steel promoter Ravi Ruia’s son, in Numetal consortium kicked up a controversy, ArcelorMittal bid was rejected as it was not re-classified as non-promoter of Uttam Galva and KSS Petron, which had defaulted on their loan.

In order to become eligible, the Tribunal said the overdue amount to the lenders in both KSS Petron and Uttam Galva should be paid off by ArcelorMittal before being eligible to bid, as provided in Section 29A of IBC.

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