The Aditya Birla group firm had offered this amount to resolution professional during insolvency process but its bid was rejected.
Business News : It was a day of high drama in the Binani Cement bankruptcy case with promoter Binani Industries entering into an agreement to sell the cement company’s shares to UltraTech Cement, even as the National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT’s) Kolkata bench heard petitions from UltraTech and Braj Bhushandas Binani, director and promoter of Binani Cement.
Aditya Birla Group firm UltraTech Cement agreed to buy out parent Binani Industries’ entire 98.4 per cent stake in the Rajasthan-based cement company. The transaction is subject to the termination of bankruptcy proceedings and other regulatory approvals.
Lenders to Binani Cement had earlier selected Dalmia Bharat over UltraTech to sell the company.
According to a statement by UltraTech, it will pay Rs 72.66 billion to lenders of Binani Cement and free up bank guarantees worth Rs 10 billion.
The NCLT heard the petitions of UltraTech and Binani, which alleged that the resolution professional and lenders reduced the valuation of Binani Cement from Rs 150 billion to just Rs 30 billion. The Binani petition even said the resolution professional had a personal interest in favouring a particular bidder and in undervaluing the company.
UltraTech said Binani Industries approached it to arrange funds to pay its bank debt (around Rs 40 billion), and it had concluded an agreement in principle to buy Binani Cement, subject to termination of proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). This was conveyed to the NCLT’s Kolkata bench on Monday, which adjourned the matter till March 22.
“Once a matter is admitted in the NCLT, one has to go by the legal procedure. There is no legal provision which states that such a parallel arrangement can be heard in NCLT,” a source close to Dalmia Bharat said.
