Tata Steel moves NCLAT against ruling allowing Liberty House to bid for Bhushan Power

NEW DELHI: Tata Steel filed an appeal in the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, challenging the National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT) order asking lenders to consider a late bid by UK’s Liberty House group for bankrupt Bhushan Power & Steel.

Liberty House submitted a bid for Bhushan Power & Steel on February 20, well past the deadline for making binding offers for the company. The bid was initially rejected by the creditors but was eventually opened under directions from the NCLT on April 23.

Tata Steel submitted its offer for the company on February 8, in adherence to the timelines. Its offer at that time exceeded that of JSW Steel, the only other bidder to have submitted a bid for the company, by a significant margin.


Tata Steel’s bid provided for upfront payments of Rs 17,000 crore to the lenders and a working capital infusion of Rs 7,000 crore, ET had reported in February.

Liberty House’s bid, opened by the committee of creditors of Bhushan Power and Steel on April 27, was higher than Tata Steel’s by Rs 1,500 crore — it offered an upfront payments of Rs 18,500 crore to creditors.

The counsel for Tata Steel, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, had made arguments in the NCLT stating that Liberty House had an unfair opportunity as it was privy to details of the bids by Tata and the other bidders at the time it submitted a late bid.

Singhvi declined comment when contacted on Tata Steel’s appeal. A spokesperson for Tata Steel didn’t respond to ET’s queries until press time Tuesday.

Bhushan Power & Steel is promoted by Sanjay Singhal, an estranged member of the family that owns Bhushan Steel, which is also undergoing insolvency proceedings.

Tata Steel has emerged the highest bidder for Bhushan Steel in a tightly fought contest where it beat a bid by rival JSW Steel by a much smaller margin than it did in the case of Bhushan Power.

It has already wrapped up financing arrangements for its acquisition of Bhushan Steel.

Bhushan Power owes a consortium comprising over two dozen banks Rs 48,524 crore. Punjab National Bank leads the consortium though State Bank of India is the main lender to the company.