The government will examine a recent order by the Kolkata bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) against one of the stakeholders in the group that won the bid for state-owned Pawan Hans before issuing the final letter of award, said people with knowledge of the matter. The government had been hoping to complete the strategic disinvestment of the helicopter company by June.
“Letter of award has not been issued. We will do a legal examination of the NCLT order before proceeding further,” said an official aware of the development.
The NCLT had questioned the financial health of the Cayman Islands-based Almas Global Opportunity Fund SPC (AGOF), majority stakeholder in Star9 Mobility Pvt Ltd, the winning bidder for Pawan Hans. The April 22 NCLT order was in connection with Almas Global’s successful bid of ₹568 crore for EMC Ltd in insolvency proceedings. EMC was admitted into the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process on November 12, 2018, for defaulting on ₹6,500 crore loans. Almas’ resolution plan was approved on October 2019 but the company did not pay any amount except the bank guarantee, leading to delay in the resolution proceedings.
