ESSAR STEEL OPERATIONAL CREDITORS ON TENTERHOOKS

AHMEDABAD/NEWDELHI: The fate of operational creditors in the Essar Steel Ltd insolvency case hangs in the balance, with the Supreme Court on Monday rejecting their petitions to stay the proceedings, and the bankruptcy tribunal’s Ahmedabad bench reserving its order on their challenge.

The operational creditors are challenging the decision of Essar Steel Ltd’s lenders and resolution professional accepting the resolution plan filed by ArcelorMittal. The ₹42,000 crore plan proposes to repay lenders, but offers operational creditors only ₹214 crore against total admitted claims of ₹4,995 crore. Essar Steel owes more than ₹49,000 crore to more than two dozen banks, led by State Bank of India. The Ahmedabad bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) said it will continue hearing the matter on Tuesday, exceeding the February 11 deadline set by National Company Law Appellate Tribunal. The bench said it will take written submissions from operational creditors in a day or so, after which it will pass its order. The tribunal did not specify when it will pass an order. The two-judge NCLT bench also agreed to hear a fresh petition by Prashant Ruia and Essar Group executives seeking to set aside the ArcelorMittal’s winning bid.