Bhushan Steel bid: Liberty House explains case in NCLT

Following the rejection of its bid for acquiring Bhushan Power and Steel, UK-based Liberty House today made a case at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), elaborating as to why it wants its bid to be opened.

"The Court heard our petition. The judge heard our arguments. We explained our case stating why we want our bids to be opened in the first case," spokesperson with Liberty House told PTI.

Liberty House also explained to the NCLT that it wants to do business in India as there is no better time than this.

There will be another hearing for the other party -- Resolution Professional and Committee of Creditors (CoC)-- in March, the spokesperson said.

The matter, the spokesperson said, is sub judice and "we have full faith in NCLT".

The company had earlier said that it was planning to move NCLT this week to direct creditors and resolution professional to consider its offer.

Terming itself as a "turnaround specialist", the company had said that it has more than two dozen turnaround success stories in the last three years and an "impeccable track record".

The Committee of Creditors had last week rejected the bid of Liberty House to acquire Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd, leaving Tata Steel and JSW Steel in the race for taking over the assets of the bankrupt firm, a source said.
 

COC in a meeting had rejected the bids of Liberty House because "it submitted the bids after the last date of submission, which was February 8", a source privy to the development had said earlier.

The bids of Tata Steel and JSW Steel were disclosed at the meeting and the detailed terms and conditions of the bids were shared with the lenders, the source had said.
 

Bhushan Power and Steel owes about Rs 45,000 crore to its lenders.

When contacted, Resolution Professional (RP) Mahender Kumar Khandelwal had declined to comment on the developments.

According to the source, while Tata Steel offered Rs 17,000 crore to the lenders as upfront amount and Rs 7,200 crore for operations of Bhushan, JSW made an offer of Rs 11,000 crore to the lenders and Rs 2,000 crore for the operations of the beleaguered power firm.

The COC will now meet on March 6 to take the process forward, including declaration of the highest bidder.
 

Bhushan Power and Steel was among the 12 non-performing accounts (NPAs) referred by the Reserve Bank of India for NCLT proceedings.