Distressed assets player AION Capital Partners Ltd and steelmaker JSW Steel Ltd have sought antitrust nod for their joint plan worth Rs 3,500 crore ($538.3 million) aiming to end the bankruptcy of Monnet Ispat and Energy Ltd, maker of sponge iron, steel, and ferro alloys, says a notification from the anti-monopoly body.
AION Capital Partners is a joint private equity fund sponsored and run by Apollo Global Management India and ICICI Venture. In the consortium bidding for Monnet Ispat and Energy, AION Capital holds a 70% stake and JSW Steel the rest. In its plan, the consortium has proposed to acquire 75% of the equity shareholding and management control of Monnet Ispat and Energy.
The offer from AION-JSW was the only one that Monnet Ispat and Energy received. The resolution plan has been accepted by Monnet Ispat and Energy’s creditors, said a BloombergQuint report on 28 February.
The proposal will also be evaluated by lawyers for final approval, the report said, adding that the resolution will result in lenders receiving only about Rs 2,650 crore against their claims of over Rs 10,000 crore.
AION Investments Private II Ltd and Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Steel had in December submitted a Rs 3,500 crore joint plan for Monnet Ispat and Energy, which was revised on 1 March 2018.
Monnet Ispat and Energy is undergoing bankruptcy resolution initiated by the National Company Law Tribunal. It is one of the dozen large-loan defaulters identified by the Reserve Bank of India on its first bankruptcy-resolution list under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.
Incorporated in 1990, Monnet Ispat and Energy operates two facilities in Raipur and Raigarh. It owes over Rs 10,000 crore to its lenders.
Lenders of Monnet Ispat and Energy had in August 2015 invoked Strategic Debt Restructuring after company defaulted on loan repayments.