Adani Power's proposal to acquire Vidarbha Industries Power's approved by NCLT

Time of India

15 hours ago

The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Wednesday approved
Adani Power Ltd
's acquisition of
Vidarbha Industries Power
Ltd. Before the tribunal's nod, the secured creditors of the company approved the plan in February 2024.
The company has admitted liabilities of Rs 6,753 crore, and the successful resolution plan has proposed to pay Rs 4,000 crore to acquire the company.
Vidarbha Industries (VIPL) owns and operates a 600-megawatt (MW) thermal power plant, with two 300-MW units each in Nagpur in Maharashtra state.
'We find that the Resolution Plan has been approved with 100% voting share. As per the CoC, the plan meets the requirement of being viable and feasible for the revival of the Corporate Debtor,' said the division bench of judicial member Nilesh Sharma and a technical member, Sameer Kakar, in its 75-page order. 'We also observe that none of the stakeholders in the process of CIRP have come forward before this Tribunal with an application objecting to the approval of this Resolution Plan,' noted the tribunal.
The tribunal also observed that the resolution plan is binding on the Corporate Debtor (VIPL), its employees, members, creditors, guarantors and other stakeholders.
Last year in September, the tribunal had admitted CFM Asset Reconstruction's application to admit the company under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP).
On February 24, Adani Power in its stock exchange filing had said that the lenders have approved its revival plan for the company and the 'implementation of the resolution plan' is subject to the 'LOI terms as well as requisite approvals from the NCLT and other regulatory approvals'.
VIPL was formerly a subsidiary of Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Power. It entered insolvency proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).
Reliance Power
had announced last year that VIPL was no longer its subsidiary.
Admitting the petition, the bench appointed Bimal Kumar Agarwal as the interim resolution professional (IRP) to oversee the insolvency process, including managing VIPL's assets and inviting resolution plans.
VIPL, a special-purpose vehicle, was set up by Reliance Power for building a coal-based thermal power plant comprising two units of 300 MW each at Butibori at Nagpur in Maharashtra. The project was awarded after an international bidding process run by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation, and it was eventually converted into an independent power project.
The Butibori project has a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) with Maharashtra for 3085 MW, with potential for expansion.
The company defaulted on loans totalling Rs. 3,872 crore to
Axis Bank
and
State Bank of India
(SBI), leading to the classification of its account as a non-performing asset in 2019. Both lenders later sold their debts to CFM ARC in 2023, as reported by ET in October 2023.