Willing to drop Rewant Ruia to win: Numetal’s top shareholder
MUMBAI: Numetal Ltd, which has bid for bankrupt Essar Steel Ltd, is willing to drop Rewant Ruia as a consortium partner if the situation so demands, a top official of the company said in an interview.
Rewant Ruia is the son of Ravi Ruia, vice-chairman of Essar Group.
The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) has barred owners and associates of defaulter companies from bidding for distressed assets when they are sold to raise cash for creditors.
“Though we believe that Rewant is a good addition to our bid; but if that stands between us and winning Essar Steel, other shareholders will buy his stake, and this is already stipulated in our bid that was submitted,” said Makram Abboud, vice-chairman of VTB Capital, the largest shareholder in Numetal.
The consortium also includes Russian engineering firm Tyazhpromexport (TPE), Indo International Trading and Aurora Enterprises Ltd, owned by a trust controlled by Rewant Ruia as its trustee.
“The Ruias are one of our clients and we have a very good relationship with them but we are not married to them and they are not married to us; we all work independently as much as we work together,” Abboud said.
“Also, Rewant Ruia does not have a board representation in Numetal and is only a minority shareholder with no say in the management and was inducted because we wanted a local partner,” he added.
Mint had reported February 21 that Numetal’s bid for Essar Steel was likely headed for disqualification as the technical evaluation by law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas and advisory firm Grant Thornton, were found to be short of fulfilling the prescribed eligibility criteria under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, which bars promoters of defaulting companies from bidding for distressed assets.