NCLAT stays Adani Power Consortium bid for Coastal Energen

CHENNAI: The Chennai bench of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has stayed the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) order approving the resolution plan of the consortium of Dickey Alternative Investment Trust (DAIT) and Adani Power for the acquisition of assets of Coastal Energen, a coal-based thermal power plant at Thoothukudi. The appellate tribunal has ordered a status quo until the next hearing on September 18.

The NCLAT stay came after the Chennai bench of the NCLT order on August 30, which approved a resolution submitted by the consortium for Rs 3,500 crore.

The NCLT order was challenged by ex-promoter AR Buhari, who has alleged the ‘glaring irregularities’ in the way the lenders approved the resolution plan.

The promoter of the power company has argued that Adani Power had applied to act as a Resolution Applicant in its individual capacity and, having failed, had parallelly entered ex-post facto as a consortium along with DAIT without ever being shortlisted as a PRA in the final list in the CIRP process. Precious Energy Holdings and Mutiara Energy Holdings, the original promoters of Coastal Energen, have also filed the appeals.

Adani Power initially faced setbacks in the bidding process under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) during Coastal Energen’s insolvency proceedings.

After a late expression of interest was rejected, Adani Power partnered with DAIT to re-enter the fray. However, DAIT did not meet the minimum financial and experience requirements stipulated in the bidding documents, raising compliance concerns and casting doubts on the transparency of their bid.