IFCI puts ₹455-cr EMC loan on the block

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

IFCI has put on sale ₹455 crore of total outstanding loans of EMC, a power transmission company. The lender has invited bids from investors and set the anchor bid at ₹140 crore, aiming for a recovery of 31%. The base bid has been structured as ₹140 crore in an all-cash deal, which the winning bidder must pay within 90 days.

Interested bidders have been asked to submit their expressions of interest (EoIs) by July 28, and the Swiss auction will take place on August 17. The bidder of the base bid will have the option to match the highest counter bid or propose a higher challenger bid. In 2018, EMC faced financial distress, leading to the National Company Law Tribunal's Kolkata bench admitting an insolvency plea filed by SBI.

The power transmission company had defaulted on payments amounting to ₹6,500 crore to various banks and other creditors. However, the resolution process is still ongoing and the company's resolution professional filed an application requesting a fresh valuation of EMC to determine its fair value as of April 20, 2022, which has been rejected. The reason cited by EMC was that the company had undergone the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) starting from November 12, 2018, during which a resolution plan was approved but not implemented by the successful applicant.

Due to this, the Adjudicating Authority ordered a limited reboot of the CIRP from the stage of calling the EoI on April 20 2018. However, the court rejected the proposal of revaluation, stating that the decision in this unique case must be taken by the Committee of Creditors (CoC) based on the available information and their commercial judgment. The resolution professional had said that during the last four years, the company has