Liberty House to complete Adhunik Metaliks acquisition in 2 months

Liberty House, part of the UK-based GFG Alliance, will look to complete the acquisition of Adhunik Metaliks within two months after securing a green signal from the latter’s creditors.

The industrial and metals company headed by billionaire Sanjeev Gupta announced on Monday that it “has secured the overwhelming approval of the Committee of Creditors to acquire and revive Adhunik Metaliks' integrated steel production operation at Chadrihariharpur near Rourkela in Odisha in eastern India.”

Adhunik Metaliks was referred to the National Company Law Tribunal last year after accumulating over Rs 5,000 crore in unpaid debt. Apart from Liberty House, Maharashtra Seamless was also interested in the stressed company.

“We now hope to complete the transaction within two months,” an executive close to Liberty House told Moneycontrol.

This is the second stressed asset in India for which Liberty House has got the go-ahead. Creditors of Amtek Auto, which was also referred to the NCLT, have given the green signal to Liberty House. Interestingly, Amtek Auto is one of the clients of Adhunik Metaliks.

“Adhunik’s integrated operations, and supply linkages to downstream industry, especially to Amtek Auto, also recently approved for acquisition by Liberty House, will enable us to build this value chain progressively,” said GFG Executive Chairman Sanjeev Gupta.

“India is a growing market place with bright outlook for steel, and downstream industries, in particular the automotive sector,” he added.

The $12 billion GFG Alliance Group, has shown interest in Bhushan Power & Energy and ABG Shipyard. It is also said to be in the running for Usha Martin, which though is not part of the NCLT, has been put on the block by its promoters.

The facility

The steelmaking capacity of Adhunik Metaliks facility in Odisha can be expanded to 1 million tonnes per annum.

Its integrated operations include sponge iron, blast furnace, electric furnaces and downstream rolling of finished steel products. The business employs almost a 1,000 people.

“Its customer segments are automotive, engineering, oil and gas, telecom, defence, power, railways and construction. Within automotive, Adhunik has approvals from leading OEMs and supplies Tata Motors, Mahindra, Ashok Leyland, Ramakrishna Forging, JMT Auto, and Amtek Auto,” Liberty House said in a statement.

The Group targets to invest around $5 billion in India.