The fight for Essar Steel intensified on Monday with ArcelorMittal increasing its bid for the stressed steel asset to ₹42,000 crore from ₹31,000 crore.

It has also offered to clear the entire dues of erstwhile Group companies Uttam Galva and KSS Petron, amounting to ₹7,000 crore, to become eligible to bid.

Reserving its right to move the Supreme Court in its third revised offer on Monday, the Lakshmi Mittal-owned company sought details related to the final loan settlement amount of both the defaulted group companies and the mode of payment to banks.

Russian consortium beaten

The revised offer from ArcelorMittal outstrips the ₹37,000-crore bid by Numetal, a consortium led by Russia’s VTB Bank.

ArcelorMittal, which has joined hands with Japan’s Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corporation, in a statement confirmed that it has submitted a revised proposal to Essar Steel’s Committee of Creditors.

The financial terms of the proposal are confidential but represent a material increase to the previous offers made by the company, it added.

The revised offer, which includes a commitment to pay the entire amount due to the financial creditors of Uttam Galva and KSS Petron, therefore represents unprecedented value to all creditors concerned, it said.

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal on Friday directed ArcelorMittal to repay all loans defaulted by Group companies before September 11 to make itself eligible to bid for Essar Steel, which owes ₹49,000 crore to lenders. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, under Section 29A, does not allow promoters of defaulting firms to participate in a bidding process.

Terming the ArcelorMittal move to revise its bid on Monday as a time-buying exercise, banking sources said the company was trying to safeguard itself from being rejected by inserting the clause reserving the right to move the Supreme Court.

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