SC approves sale of Binani Cement to UltraTech, upholds NCLAT order

On November 19, upholding National Company Law Appellate Tribunal's (NCLAT) order, a Supreme Court bench of Justices Rohinton F Nariman and Navin Sinha approved the sale of Binani Cement Ltd. to UltraTech Cement Ltd., and thus dismissed the plea filed by Dalmia Bharat's Rajputana Properties which had challenged the NCLAT order.

Rajputana Properties had challenged in the SC the November 14 order of NCLAT, which had approved UltraTech's plan to acquire Binani, holding that the rival bid by Dalmia Group was "discriminatory" to the creditors of Binani. Dalmia had thus moved the SC on November 15, challenging the NCLAT's approval.

After the SC verdict, on November 20, UltraTech cleared all dues of the creditors of Binani to take possession of the latter's plants in India, UAE, and China. Notably, the board of Binani Cement has been reconstituted and the company has now become a wholly owned subsidiary of UltraTech.

Notably, financial creditors to Binani Cement were Canara Bank, the State Bank of India (SBI), Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company (EARC), Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank, EXIM Bank, among others.

In this regard, UltraTech said, "In terms of the company's resolution plan approved by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), the board of Binani Cement has been re-constituted and BCL has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company with effect from November 20, 2018".