The Committee of Creditors has rejected the bid of U.K.-based Liberty House to acquire Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd., leaving Tata Steel and JSW Steel in the race for taking over the assets of the bankrupt firm, a source said.
“Committee of Creditors (CoC) in a meeting today [Wednesday] has rejected the bids of Liberty House (of the U.K.) because the company submitted the bids after the last date of submission date which was February 8,” a source privy to the development said.
Liberty House had submitted the bid on Tuesday, he said. In Tuesday’s CoC meeting, the bids of Tata Steel and JSW Steel were disclosed and now the process as well as legal advisers evaluate them, the source said.
The detailed terms and conditions of the bids were disclosed to the lenders at the meeting, the source said.
Bhushan Power and Steel owes about ₹45,000 crore to its lenders. When contacted, Resolution Professional (RP) Mahender Kumar Khandelwal declined to comment on the developments.
The source said that while Tata Steel offered ₹17,000 crore to the lenders as upfront amount and ₹7,200 crore for operations of Bhushan, JSW made an offer of ₹11,000 crore to the lenders and ₹2,000 crore for the operations of the beleaguered power firm.
Meeting on March 6
The CoC will meet on March 6 to take the process forward, including declaration of the highest bidder.
Bhushan Steel and Power was among the 12 non-performing accounts referred by RBI for NCLT proceedings.
The insolvency process was filed by SBI, the lead bank of the consortium of lenders, in the case of Bhushan Steel, while a similar plea was filed by Punjab National Bank against Bhushan Power and Steel.
