Auto component manufacturer Amtek Auto Ltd started a fresh bidding process on Thursday, nearly two years after bankruptcy proceedings first began for the debt-laden company.
The Delhi-based company said in a stock-exchange filing that prospective bidders can submit their resolution plans by 6 pm on June 28.
The move comes after the Chandigarh bench of the National Company Law Tribunal in February allowed Amtek’s creditors to start the resolution process from scratch.
Amtek Auto was one of the 12 large corporate defaulters that the Reserve Bank of India had identified in June 2017 for insolvency proceedings. It was dragged to the bankruptcy court by state-run Corporation Bank in July 2017. The company owes its financial creditors about Rs 12,600 crore. It also owes about Rs 206 crore to its operational creditors.
In March last year, the UK-based metals group Liberty House had emerged as the highest bidder for Amtek. Besides Liberty, Amtek had attracted a bid from US-based employee-owned hedge fund sponsor Deccan Value Investors.
However, Amtek’s resolution professional Dinkar Venkatasubramanian questioned Liberty’s suitability to buy the auto components maker because it itself owed money to creditors. While the NCLT approved Liberty’s bid, the UK-based company failed to honour its payment commitments.