Liberty House appeal to NCLT to be heard today

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The fate of Liberty House's bid for Bhushan Power and Steel may be decided on Monday morning, when its appeal to the National Company Law Tribunal will be heard.

The UK-based company had moved the NCLT after its bid for Bhushan Power and Steel was rejected by Committee of Creditors last week. The Committee, consisting of lenders, had refused to consider the bid as it was submitted after the deadline had passed on February 8.

The case will be heard by the NCLT's Principal Bench in New Delhi, and is listed sixth on the list of cases.

Tata Steel and JSW Steel had put in their bids on February 8, and the Tata company - with a bid of Rs 17,000 crore - is said to be the frontrunner. Bhushan Power and Steel has accumulated debts of nearly Rs 50,000 crore and was referred to the NCLT last year.

Unprecedented

The appeal by Liberty House, the USD 6.8 billion company owned by Sanjeev Gupta, is an unprecedented one. In none of the auctions till now has a bid been accepted after the deadline.

If the company's bid is accepted by the NCLT, it will open up a much contentious issue. Sources say that JSW Steel and Tata Steel may consider contesting it.

Last week, Liberty House had reacted sharply to its being rejected.

"Our bid was submitted before (other) bids were opened, so nothing unfair has happened," a spokesperson for Liberty House had told Moneycontrol.

"We will go to the NCLT and ask them to direct the RP (resolution professional) and CoC to open our bid. The process is not supposed to deny creditors to recover more money on these bad debts, that would not be fair as this is public money," said the spokesperson.

Apart from Bhushan Power, Liberty House has also submitted bids for Amtek Auto and ABG Shipyard.

In a conversation with Moneycontrol, Gupta had said that the sale of stressed assets in an opportunity to "leapfrog" Liberty House's presence in India.

Gupta, a British citizen of Indian origin, has transformed the company, which earlier was engaged in commodity trading, into a manufacturing major. The company has steel, energy and recycling facilities in the UK and Australia.