The apex court has on November 20, rejected the resolution plan submitted by Dalmia Bharat’s Rajputana Properties against the UltraTech’s Binani Cement acquisition bid. The Supreme Court upheld National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s (NCLAT) order of acquiring debt-ridden Binani Cement by approving its revised Rs 7,950.34 crore bid.
Two Bench of Justices RF Nariman and Navin Sinha dismissed the plea of the Dalmia Bharat’s-owned Rajputana Properties. Earlier the Committee of Creditors (COC) has approved Rajputana’s Rs 6,932.4 crore bid, but later the decision was changed after UltraTech revised its offer.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta- CoC, told the court UltraTech’s resolution plan was backed up by 100% secured creditors, 100% operational creditors and 100% unsecured creditors.
To oppose the statement, on behalf of Rajputana Properties, senior advocate Gopal Subramanium told the court that ‘no one is allowed to revise its bid after having the knowledge of competitor’s bid’ and that this step is against the insolvency law.
NCLAT had dismissed Rajputana property’s appeal on November 14, and termed it “discriminatory” and “unbalanced”. The tribunal had said, “The objective of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code is resolution (and) the purpose of the resolution is for maximization of the value of assets of the debtor.”
The last decision of the dispute was by Binani Cement’s CoC to consider the revised bid from UltraTech, after. In July, Rajputana Properties had appealed in the apex court challenging CoC’s decision of considering UltraTechs’ revised bid. After, the court passed the discussion to NCLAT.
The NCLAT order stated- “We approve the revised resolution plan submitted by UltraTech Cement which shall be binding on the corporate debtor (Binani Cement) and its employees, members, creditors, guarantors and other stakeholders involved in the Resolution Plan.”