Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas advises the Committee of Creditors of Essar Steel India Limited

December 16, 2019

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co (SAM & Co) has advised the committee of creditors of Essar Steel India Limited (ESIL). This is among the top 12 large stressed assets referred by Reserve Bank of India to banks for initiation of corporate insolvency resolution process.

 

Out of the resolution plans received for ESIL (i.e., resolution plans submitted by Arcelor Mittal India Private Limited (AMIPL), Vedanta Limited and Numetal Limited), the resolution plan of AMIPL was approved by the committee of creditors in October 25, 2018 (pursuant to clearance of its ineligibility under Section 29A as ordered by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India vide its judgement dated 4 October 2018) and has now been accorded the approval of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India vide the judgment delivered by it on November 15, 2019.

 

ESIL was enlisted in the first list of 12 companies to be referred to insolvency by Reserve Bank of India in 2017. ESIL was the largest recovery under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 ever, for the banks in India.

 

SAM & Co has advised the committee of creditors since the commencement of the corporate insolvency resolution process of ESIL on all matters related to the process including the legal issues pertaining to eligibility of the resolution applicants, corporate compliances, review of resolution plans, negotiations with the resolution applicants and opining on various legal issues being faced by the committee of creditors. SAM & Co. team has also appeared for the committee of creditors and assisted the courts in the several litigations matters arising at various stages of the process before the National Company Law Tribunal, Ahmedabad bench (NCLT), National Company Law Appellate Tribunal and the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India.

 

SAM & Co has also advised the Monitoring Committee during the interim period between the approval of the resolution plan by the NCLT till the effective date i.e. the date of acquisition of ESIL, to keep the company as a going concern.

 

The transaction team that formed part of the corporate insolvency resolution advisory was led by Shardul Shroff, Executive Chairman and included Sapan Gupta, Partner and NP Head – Banking & Finance, Soummo Biswas, Partner, Veena Sivaramakrishnan, Partner, Yogesh Chande, Partner, Deepto Roy, Partner, Sagar Manju, Principal Associate, Mrida Lakhmani, Senior Associate, Charu Misra, Senior Associate, Swati Lal, Senior Associate, Parth Gokhale, Senior Associate, Moushmi Mehta, Associate, Suktika Banerjee, Associate and Lishaka Gulati, Associate.

 

The litigation team handling the court-process in relation to the corporate insolvency resolution process included Pallavi Shroff, Managing Partner, Manu Nair, Partner, Misha, Partner, Ameya Gokhale, Partner, Meghna Rajadhyaksha, Partner, Rishab Gupta, Partner, Siddhant Kant, Senior Associate, Grishma Ahuja, Senior Associate, Vaijayant Paliwal, Senior Associate, Rishab Jogani, Senior Associate, Shalin Jani, Associate, Jasveen Kaur, Associate and Moulshree Shukla, Associate.

 

The total debt (including financial debt, operational debt and other debt) resolved is approximately INR 54,000 Crores and the total amount paid to the various stakeholders/creditors of ESIL is approximately INR 43,000 Crores.

 

The effective date for the transaction i.e. acquisition of ESIL by AMIPL is December 16, 2019.