‘Tata can bid for Bhushan, Vedanta for Electrosteel’
NEWDELHI:The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Friday ruled that Tata Steel Ltd and Vedanta Ltd were eligible to bid for Bhushan Steel Ltd and Electrosteel Steels Ltd, respectively.
The two-judge NCLAT bench headed by justice SJ Mukhopadhyay rejected pleas by Bhushan Steel founder Neeraj Singhal and the firm’s operational creditor Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T), and ruled that Tata Steel was eligible to bid for the debt-ridden company.
“On hearing the counsel for the parties and taking into consideration the submissions made by the counsel for the appellant ‘operational creditor’ and the respondents, we hold that the ‘resolution plan’ submitted by ‘Tata Steel Ltd’ is fair and equitable to all the creditors, including the ‘operational creditors’. Therefore, no interference is called for,” the tribunal said.
The appellate tribunal also rejected appeals against Electrosteel Steels’ sale to Vedanta. “We hold that ‘Vedanta Ltd’ is eligible and clause (d) of Section 29(A) of the ‘I&B Code’ is not attracted in its case,” it said in its judgement to various appeals by Renaissance Steel India Pvt. Ltd, one of the unsuccessful bidders for Electrosteel, against a 17 April order of the National Company Law Tribunal’s Kolkata bench approving Vedanta’s ₹5,320 crore resolution plan for Electrosteel.
Separately, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to stop the revision of bids for debt-laden Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd. The decision on the insolvency case should be taken by NCLAT after it completes hearing on the issue as expeditiously as possible, said a two-judge panel headed by justice Rohinton F. Nariman.