The Chatterjee group controlled Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd has emerged as a successful bidder for the ailing Coastal Oil & Gas Infrastructure Pvt Ltd (COGIL), a special purpose vehicle of Nagarjuna Oil Corporation Ltd (NOCL), which was acquired by HPL in a liquidation process last year.
COGIL was incorporated exclusively to provide services to the petrochemical refinery project proposed to be set up by NOCL, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hyderabad headquartered Nagarjuna Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd (NFCL). Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) was among the two resolution applicants to have submitted their resolution proposals for acquiring COGIL through the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP). BOMS Pvt Ltd was the other resolution applicant but the committee of creditors (CoC) at their meeting held on January 20 approved the resolution plan of HPL with a voting of 68.68 percent.
As against the liquidation value of Rs 36.46 crore, HPL had offered a resolution amount of Rs 37.5 crore and the CoC approved the proposal.
The National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT) Amaravati bench comprising Justice Telaprolu Rajani on February 16 approved the resolution plan of HPL after it was cleared by the CoC.
Terming it one of the fastest approvals of a successful bidder by the tribunal, the counsel for resolution professional MS Mano Ranjani told Moneycontrol that the application for approval of resolution plan was filed before the NCLT’s Amaravati bench on February 10. She said the issue was listed for hearing on February 15 and the order of approval was pronounced on February 16.
“Quite a challenging and exciting ride along with the RP (resolution professional) in resolving the CD (corporate debtor) in which many landmarks were established,” said Ranjani.
Earlier, an insolvency petition filed by the financial creditors of COGIL was rejected by the NCLT’s Amaravati bench on 30 October 2019 terming it as barred by limitation. Challenging this, the lenders moved the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) which on 21 September 2020 set aside the order of the NCLT and directed the tribunal at Amaravati to admit the insolvency plea filed by the financial creditors Bank of India and Central Bank of India.
The appellate tribunal had observed that the NCLT bench had “wrongly considered” the date of default as 16 March 2015 instead of 22 December 2017 for computation of the limitation period to file an application before it. Accordingly, the appellate tribunal had ordered the NCLT Amaravati bench to admit the insolvency plea of the financial creditors under Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.
Following this, the NCLT Amaravati bench admitted the insolvency plea of the financial creditors and appointed an interim resolution professional for initiating the CIRP process on 26 February 2021.
COGIL was initially incorporated in May 2010 as a joint venture company between Abir Infrastructure Pvt Ltd and NOCL, which proposed to set up a crude oil refinery upon the leasehold lands obtained on lease from the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT). COGIL was incorporated to offer terminalling services required for the proposed crude oil terminal of NOCL but COGIL could not complete the construction of the petroleum refinery project.
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