Rohit Ferro Tech gets breather to push debt settlement with bankers

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Ferro alloy maker Rohit Ferro- Tech Ltd has got some breathing time following the NCLT's rejection of an insolvency resolution petition and now expects to revive the debt settlement with the bankers.

The Kolkata bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has rejected the State Bank of India's petition seeking resolution under provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) for their debt exposure of Rs 1792.12 crore in Rohit Ferro.

SBI accounts for around 50 percent of the total debt exposure of financial creditors in the company.

"Among all the lenders, SBI had approached the NCLT for a resolution for their dues. The NCLT turned down their petition and it has given us some breather to revive the company," Rohit Ferro managing director Ankit Patni told PTI.

"Now, we are hopeful that bankers will come forward and revive the settlement plan we had already submitted with them," he said.

Declining to divulge details of the settlement plan, Patni said it includes capital infusion from the promoters.

A winding-up petition, pending in court, was filed by operational creditors and not financial creditors, Patni said.

Out of four plants of Rohit Ferro, only two are operational now.

The Bishnupur unit for stainless steel is operational and the one at Jajpur for ferro alloy is operational at a capacity of about 50 percent.

The company's total installed capacity for ferro alloy is 2.74 lakh tonne and stainless steel of 1 lakh tonne.

It reported Rs 278.58 crore loss for 2018-19 from a revenue of Rs 892.83 crore from operations.

But, auditors in their note of 2018-19 results pointed out non-recognition of interest expenses provision and if the same is included, the loss would have been Rs 532 crore instead of Rs 278.58 crore as reported.