Jindal Power and Steel, also in the fray, did not submit a bid at the auction, the people said.
The resolution professional set a threshold price of ₹1,143 crore – the price at which
submitted a bid. JPSL had previously offered ₹859 crore on a net present value basis, which was arrived at after discounting the future cash flows, the people said.
Vedanta’s offer involves ₹312 crore in upfront payment to lenders and the remaining in equal instalments over the next five years, one of the persons cited above said. Jindal Power’s ₹859 crore offer involved ₹149 crore upfront, and the remaining was in equal instalments over eight years, the same person said. Vedanta and Jindal Power did not respond to ET’s request for comments.
Last October, an offer of ₹1,003 crore for Meenakshi Energy from the government-owned National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd (NARCL) triggered a Swiss Challenge auction.
Lenders kept the sale to NARCL at abeyance as they decided to wait for the auction’s outcome.
In the first round, the Jindal Power and Vedanta offers were in the range of ₹800-900 crore – lower than that offered by NARCL, the person cited above said. “Lenders may vote for Vedanta’s plan since it is better than NARCL’s offer,” he said.
Interestingly, Vedanta gave a revised, improved offer to lenders just a few days ahead of the scheduled Wednesday (January 4) auction. “Lenders refrained from considering it since it came after the deadline and decided to go ahead with the auction process,” the first person said.
The SBICAP Trustee holds 95% equity in Meenakshi Energy, at the behest of the lenders. Following a directive from lenders, the trustee company invoked shares held by
(IPCL) and Meenakshi Energy & Infrastructure Holdings (collectively referred to as shareholders), the information memorandum (IM) circulated by the administrator showed.
The shares were invoked between December 2017 and January 2018 following a default in loan payments. The shareholders have challenged the invocation of their equity shares before the Hyderabad High Court, the IM said. IPCL, which provided a corporate guarantee for Meenakshi Energy, is part owned by Aksara Commercial, stock exchange disclosures showed. In February 2016, Srei promoter Hemant Kanoria announced the acquisition of Meenakshi Energy from Engie Group of France for $1.
