Liquidation deadline looms for 11 firms referred to NCLT

NCLT, judiciary, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code Under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), a company has to be liquidated if it fails to complete the insolvency resolution process within 270 days of its admission to the bankruptcy court.

While Jyoti Structures, one of the 11 companies referred to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) last year, has already overstepped its liquidation deadline, a few others on the list have close to two weeks before they would need to be mandatorily liquidated.

Under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), a company has to be liquidated if it fails to complete the insolvency resolution process within 270 days of its admission to the bankruptcy court.

For instance, Alok Industries and Monnet Ispat with debts of `23,443 crore and `10,333 crore, respectively, have till April 14 to formalise a resolution plan, Electrosteel Steels (Rs 10,274 crore) has till April 17. Others like Amtek Auto, Bhushan Steel, Bhushan Power & Steel, ABG Shipyard, Essar Steel, Lanco Infratech and Jaypee Infratech have to complete their insolvency processes between April 20 and May 6.

Of the 11 companies, Bhushan Steel and Electrosteel seem to be nearing a closure of the resolution process with the companies naming Tata Steel and Vedanta, respectively, as the highest bidders. That apart, lenders are also looking at a joint resolution plan submitted by JSW Steel and AION Capital for Monnet Ispat.

Meanwhile, a recent report by CLSA pointed out that its bottom-up assessment of the top NCLT cases (`4 lakh crore of debt, 5% of total loans and 45% of non-performing assets) indicates that haircuts will range from 20% to 90%; the total haircut is likely to be less than 60%. “Large steel projects should see the least haircuts while EPC & power sectors the highest; NCLT1 cases are likely to see higher recovery rates vs NCLT2,” CLSA said in the report.

Uday Kotak, executive chairman of Kotak Mahindra Bank, said bankers should be content if they are able to recover close to 40% of the principal. “I believe that there are some sectors, like the steel sector, where the valuations are pretty decent. But, I still believe, when we look at the overall menu of the first, say 100 or 200 companies which get into this, looking at the loading which is there in the system, I believe that we should be happy if at least 40% of the principal value comes back,” he added.

The 11 accounts, identified by the central bank, are those to whom banks have an exposure of more than `5,000 crore each, more than 60% of which has been recognised as NPAs.

The RBI had on June 13 last year asked banks to refer a dozen troubled companies – with a combined debt of close to `2.4 lakh crore – to the NCLT, following several failed attempts at loan recovery.

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