ArcelorMittal has offered lenders Rs 4,800 crore for Essar’s 2×600 MW Mahan thermal power project in Madhya Pradesh, surpassing the Essar promoters’ one-time settlement offer of Rs 3,500 crore, a senior PFC official told FE.
Rajeev Sharma, chairman and managing director of PFC, which is one of the consortium lenders to Essar Power’s MP project, told FE, “We are in process of evaluating the offer. We will offer promoters the first right of refusal, if they will match or exceed the offer, we will select the highest offer. As a transparent mechanism to choose the bidder we will open the window for a day and the highest bidder will be chosen under the reverse auction process. We are hopeful of closing the deal in the next 2-3 months.”
In September 2018, ICICI Bank, the lead lender for the Essar Power’s Mahan project, moved the NCLT seeking initiation of insolvency proceedings against Essar Power MP. However, after the apex court’s order maintaining a status quo on relief to power companies from the February 12 RBI circular, lenders have decided to resolve the issue outside the NCLT.
