2nd round of e-auction for sale of Punj Lloyd as going concern on 28 Aug
The liquidator of Punj Lloyd Ltd — Ashwini Mehra – will hold the second round of e-auction on 28 August 2023 for sale of the company as going concern. The e-auction will be held from 11 am to 6 pm. All interested bidders have been asked to submit the Expression of Interest along with requisite eligibility documents on or before 8 August.
The Reserve Price for call of bids has been fixed at Rs 1,061 crore. The interested bidders will have to submit an earnest amount of Rs 10 crore. The first round of auction was held on 10 July 2023. The 1st round of e-auction announcing sale of Punj Lloyd on going concern basis had failed to attract any bidder.
Punj Lloyd was pushed to insolvency after ICICI Bank dragged it to NCLT in March 2018 for failing to pay Rs 854 crore. The NCLT admitted ICICI Bank’s insolvency petition against the company, and thus began the long process of resolution, which is yet to get over.
The company owed Rs 13,386 crore to over 1097 creditors including both financial and operational creditors.
A final resolution plan was submitted by a consortium of Payard Investments Private Ltd and Prudent ARC Ltd. However, the Committee of Creditors rejected the resolution by a vote share of 79.53%.
The Committee of Creditors in March 2021 decided to sell Punj Lloyd as going concern under the liquidation process. The resolution professional Ashwini Mehra prayed the Delhi bench of NCLT to pass an order to liquidate the company as going concern because Punj Lloyd had over 3,000 employees and several ongoing EPC projects.
The NCLT allowed the request of the resolution professional and ordered liquidation of the company as a going concern in July 2022. Ashwini Mehra was appointed the liquidator. Ever since the liquidator of the company has been trying to sell it as going concern.
Under the liquidation process, the stakeholders submitted claims of Rs 17,212 crore.
After several extensions for the last date for submitting EoI, both Adani Infra and Vedanta Ltd submitted their bids in October 2022.
The two bidders had to revise their bids in December 2022 after the Stakeholders Consultation Committee (SCC) found both the bidders treating the going concern sale process.
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