The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) today stayed industrialist Anil Agarwal-led Twin Star Technologies' Rs 2,962.02 crore bid to acquire debt-ridden Videocon Industries. A two-member NCLAT bench, headed by its officiating chairperson Justice AIS Cheema, stayed the order passed by the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal on June 9.
The NCLAT order came after two petitions filed by unsatisfied creditors -- Bank of Maharashtra and IFCI Ltd -- against the deal. The appellate tribunal also issued notices to the committee of creditors, Videocon resolution professional and Twin Star, and sought the reply in the next two weeks.
The next hearing on the matter has been fixed on September 7. Videocon Industries and its 12 group companies had a total admitted claims of Rs 64,838.63 crore.
On June 16, the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had approved Vedanta Group's Twin Star Technologies' resolution plan for beleaguered Videocon.
Also read: Anil Agarwal's Vedanta to acquire Videocon from insolvency
"Since this is the commercial wisdom of the CoC and as per the various judgements of the Supreme Court and by following the judicial precedents, discipline the Adjudicating Authority (NCLT) approves the resolution plan of the Successful Resolution Applicant with a suggestion, request to both CoC and the Successful Resolution Applicant to increase the pay-out amount to these Operational Creditors especially MSMEs," the NCLT had said.
As per the resolution plan, Twin Star Technologies was supposed to pay Rs 2,962 crore against Videocon's total debt. Twin Star had agreed to pay around Rs 500 crore in 90 days as upfront payment and the rest as non-convertible debentures over a while.
The NCLT had allowed insolvency proceedings against Videocon group comprising 13 companies in 2019 after state-owned lender SBI filed an insolvency plea against Videocon Industries in December 2017.
Earlier, the Dhoot family had offered to pay Rs 30,000 crore to lenders to settle their outstanding loans and pull out 13 Videocon group companies from the insolvency proceedings. The consortium of lenders had, however, rejected Videocon promoter Venugopal Dhoot's settlement offer in December 2020.
Also read: Videocon's Dhoot offers to settle Rs 31,289 crore debt; creditors say 10-15 years plan no good
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With PTI inputs