Five hundred employees of Bhushan Steel in partnership with a Singapore-based fund have placed a bid for acquiring the stressed asset of Bhushan Steel.
They are in a race against JSW Steel and Tata Steel, the two other bidders.
The deadline, which was extended twice, ended at 6 pm on Saturday. The winning bid will be announced on Tuesday.
JSW Steel has joined hands with Piramal Enterprises after Japanese steel company JFE pulled out of the partnership at the last moment. Contrary to market expectations, Arcelor Mittal did not put in a bid.
Unlike Monnet Ispat, where bids were sought online, the Bhushan Steel resolution professional decided to accept bids in physical form at the company’s Gurgaon office.
Fierce bidding
The bidding for Bhushan Steel was fierce as the committee of creditors has decided to negotiate only with the highest bidder.
It is learnt that JSW Steel and Tatas have submitted bids at about ₹30,000 crore, almost double the liquidation value of the company.
The acceptance of bids after the deadline expired has resulted in heartburn among some companies, who feel their bids may have been leaked to competitors.
Bhushan Steel is one of the biggest among the 40 non-performing accounts listed by the Reserve Bank of India.
The company has 5.6 million tonne production capacity in Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), Khopoli (Maharashtra) and Dhenkanal (Odisha). It had outstanding debt stood of ₹46,263 crore as on March 31, 2017.
It reported a net loss of ₹3,501 crore for the fiscal on revenues of ₹15,027 crore.