These companies have expressed their willingness to increase the offers to what the company owes creditors.
Indicative offers from Nagpur headquarters Sardinian energy & Minerals, Delhi-based Jindal Power, and the Adani Group are much lower and these bidders are no longer considered strong contenders to take over the plant, people familiar with the matter said.
"Although no one has officially withdrawn, some bidders have informally expressed their inability to raise their initial bids, while ntpcTorrent, Vantage and Dependence They are still open to raising their bids," a person familiar with the process said. "The banks want to avoid a protracted bidding war through a challenge process and are therefore putting pressure on bidders to liquidate all bids. cash odds, which will be a good result and it's a high probability."
The corporate insolvency process for SKS was started in April 2022. The company owes โน1890 crore to two banks: bank of baroda and state bank of india (SBI).
The bankers are confident of recovering all their dues due to the high demand for the plant. It is a rare operational plant available for sale with a fuel agreement and power purchase agreements. More importantly, the asset is cheap because the total costs, assuming the lenders get their full money, come to less than Rs 4 crores per MW. That compares with the Rs 9 crore per MW needed to build a similar plant today. The plant has a 25-year fuel agreement with South Eastern Coalfields, a Indian Coal unit, with a rail line that transports coal directly to the plant - a rare facility.
"The offers are now in the final stages. Our estimate is that the banks are getting close to receiving a full recovery. Jindal and Sarda had some facilities near the plant and were considered strong contenders, but both have indicated they do not want to pay the better dollars. Adani Group's problems are well known, which means there are only four bidders left in the running," said a second person familiar with the developments.
Process adviser BoB Capital Markets and resolutions professional Ashish Rathi did not respond to an email seeking comment.
The rules say that any amount recovered in excess of financial creditors' fees has to go to operating creditors after adjusting for costs. In this case, the operating creditors have installments of more than Rs 500 crore.
The plant is currently being managed by NTPC following a government directive aimed at overcoming power shortages.
Lenders are confident that some amount will remain for operating creditors even after taking over their installments.
The Chhattisgarh-based 600 MW plant had halted production after the Hong Kong-listed owner agribusiness resources he was unable to keep it running due to his own financial difficulties.
Agritrade Resources bought the plant in 2019 in a unique deal with a group of lenders led by SBI.
