Binani Cement takeover: UtraTech gets CCI approval, Dalmia Bharat claims highest bid
Kolkata: Amid the ongoing battle for taking over insolvent Binani Cement, UltraTech Cement on Wednesday said it has obtained the Competition Commission of India's (CCI) approval on its bid for the debt-laden company while rival bidder, Dalmia Bharat said the reasons cited by the former for its bid were "misleading".
"A lot of apprehensions were raised by the Resolution Professional about UltraTech obtaining the CCI clearance on its bid for Binani Cement. CCI has today (Wednesday) cleared it. The company was rated the H2 bidder instead of H1 (highest bidder), for this reason," the Aditya Birla group company said in a regulatory filing.
According to it, the CCI clearance validates its contention that "they were wrongly and unjustifiably rated H2 instead of H1".
Rejecting this, Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Limited's Group CEO Mahendra Singhi said: "The reasons cited by the unsuccessful bidder for its failed bid, in stock exchange filings and press interviews, are misleading. We have made the highest financial bid and had also obtained the highest score in the evaluation."
He said the evaluation criteria for the bids was fair and made known to all the bidders before the bids.
"We state emphatically that the likelihood of obtaining the CCI approval by a bidder was not at all a criterion in bid evaluation. In fact, CCI approval was contemplated to be a post NCLT approval step and hence had been made a carved-out condition precedent to the resolution plans of all the resolution applicants," Singhi said.
He also said "the only criteria involving regulatory orders was whether any adverse regulatory order including an adverse CCI order imposing penalties had been passed against the bidder over the last 5 years".
"No evidence has been cited to show that the COC (Committee of Creditors) and its advisors did not make a correct assessment of bids," Singhi said.
During the ongoing insolvency proceedings of Binani Cement, Resolution Professional Vijaykumar V Iyer, submitted the resolution plan of Dalmia Bharat-controlled Rajputana Properties before the Kolkata bench of National Company Law Tribunal as the "highest bidder" to take it over.
Binani Industries, the parent company of insolvent company, had submitted the application before the tribunal seeking termination of insolvency proceedings against its cement manufacturing subsidiary and the company's counsel had said on Tuesday it could pay all its creditors within two weeks.
The move came after the company concluded a commercial understanding with the UltraTech Cement to sell its entire 98.43 per cent stake in its cement manufacturing subsidiary at a consideration of Rs 7,266 crore.
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Allahabad HC asks Moradabad DM to act against 'illegal' construction of temple in public park
Prayagraj (UP), May 20: The Allahabad High Court has directed the district magistrate and station house officer (SHO) concerned to take appropriate action in accordance with law regarding the alleged illegal construction of a temple in a public park of Awas Vikas Parishad at Buddh Vihar, Majhola in Moradabad district of Uttar Pradesh.
Hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) matter filed by Neeraj Kumar Tyagi, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Bhansali and Justice Vikas Budhwar directed the Awas Evam Vikas Parishad, Moradabad to approach the DM and SHO concerned by way of an exhaustive application pertaining to the alleged illegal construction.
The petitioner has alleged that some people are illegally constructing a temple in a public park in the Awas Vikas Colony. When the matter was brought to the knowledge of the Awas Vikas executive engineer, he sent a junior engineer to the spot, who asked those involved in the construction to stop the work, but it was not stopped.
Thereafter, the executive engineer approached the Majhola SHO. However, when no action was taken, he wrote to the DM but despite this, no action has been taken so far.
Hence, the petitioner filed the petition in the court seeking the removal of the illegal construction from the park. During the course of the hearing, the counsel for the petitioner, Rajvendra Singh, contended that the Uttar Pradesh government issued an order dated October 29, 2009, prohibiting the construction of temples, churches, mosques, gurdwaras etc. on public roads, parks and public places. In this backdrop, he requested the court to intervene and direct the authorities concerned to take appropriate steps.
The petitioner also requested the court to grant him time to implead those involved in raising the construction as respondents in the PIL.
After hearing the petitioner's counsel, the court, in its order dated May 15, observed, "A perusal of the petition clearly indicates that construction is going on in the park and despite the Awas Evam Vikas Parishad requiring the police to intervene and stop the illegal construction, apparently, nothing has been done either by the district administration or the police station concerned."
The court has fixed July 8 for the next hearing in the matter.
