NCLT allows liquidator's petition to sell company as going concern without dissolution
NCLT allows liquidator's petition to sell company as going concern without dissolution
The company was admitted for insolvency resolution process on August 8, 2018, and later on June 12, 2020, the company was admitted for liquidation after lenders failed to receive any viable resolution proposal.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), New Delhi bench has allowed the petition filed by the company's liquidator to sell Lotus Auto Engineering as a going concern without its dissolution.
In its application, the liquidator sought to direct the Registrar of the Companies (RoC) to reflect the company's status to 'active' from 'liquidation', in addition to the tribunal's intervention to confirm the sale of the company as a going concern with its dissolution.
Lotus Auto is a manufacturer of cast iron and cast iron components and has a manufacturing facility in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan. The company owes over Rs 550 crore to its lenders and Kolkata-based Deepak Industries has paid about Rs 38 crore to acquire the company in the auction.
The tribunal allowed Deepak Industries' plea. The Tribunal also allowed Deepak Industries' similar plea, who bought Lotus Auto through the e-auction process.
As a result, the division bench of Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar and technical member Avinash Srivastava, directed the liquidator to provide all the support and assistance to the successful bidder of the company.
At the time of its insolvency resolution process, firms including listed auto component maker Sona BLW Precision Forgings, Alchemist ARC, Liberty House Group Pte., SSG Capital Management (Singapore) Pte. Ltd and Phoenix ARC among others had shown interest. However, the company was admitted for liquidation after lenders failed to receive any viable resolution plan.
