Rankini Power puts itself up for bids a fourth time; SREI’s ₹1,439-crore claim at stake

Kolkata-based Rankini Power Generation Pvt Ltd has issued a fresh invitation for expressions of interest (EOIs) from prospective resolution applicants. It is the fourth version of the company’s Form G in less than five months of insolvency proceedings, a sign that the earlier rounds failed to attract a viable buyer.

According to the notice, published in Business Standard on October 9, EOIs are due by November 7, 2026. The provisional list of applicants will be issued on November 17, objections are due by November 22, and the final list is due on December 2. Resolution plans must be submitted by January 6, 2027.

One creditor, one employee

The National Company Law Tribunal admitted Rankini into the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) by an order dated May 14, 2026. Its creditor list is dominated by a single lender. SREI Equipment Finance Ltd claimed ₹1,439.49 crore, and ₹1,438.53 crore of that has been admitted, giving SREI 100% of the voting share in the committee of creditors.

Palm Products Pvt Ltd has filed a further secured claim of ₹70.83 crore, which remains under verification.

Most of the remaining claims come from parties linked to the company:

• Its holding company, Ganesh Credits & Investments Pvt Ltd, has filed an unsecured claim of ₹66.52 lakh.
• Sanjay Gupta, a member of Rankini’s suspended board, has an employee claim of ₹36.85 lakh, which has been admitted.
• His wife, Preeti Gupta, has an admitted operational claim of ₹46,667.

The Form G says the company has only one employee, and gives its installed capacity and production as “not applicable”.

The Nagpur link

According to the Form G, Rankini’s main asset is its [stake in] Abhijeet MADC Nagpur Energy Pvt Ltd (AMNEPL). AMNEPL owns a [246 MW] power plant in Nagpur.

AMNEPL was set up as a joint venture to supply power to the MIHAN special economic zone. It entered insolvency in 2017 and moved into liquidation in 2018 after resolution attempts failed. Liquidation began on August 31, 2018, under liquidator Vinod Kumar Kothari. By July 2020, claims of about ₹2,236 crore had been admitted against it, including about ₹2,056 crore from secured financial creditors.

The liquidator invited EOIs for AMNEPL’s assets repeatedly between 2018 and 2020. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has since dismissed appeals by Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC), the state-owned owner of the plant’s land, and upheld the sale of AMNEPL’s assets. NCLAT held that MADC’s ownership of the land did not give it the right to block the sale, but said its rights under the build-operate-transfer agreement remain protected.

That leaves a would-be bidder for Rankini buying, in effect, a claim on whatever is left of a liquidated power plant, held by a company with a single employee and no operations of its own.

Timeline pressure

Rankini’s 180-day CIRP period runs out around November 10, 2026. The January 6 deadline for resolution plans falls on about day 237. Unless the tribunal extends the process or excludes time, the plan deadline will fall outside the standard window, though still within the code’s 330-day outer limit.

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