The ongoing insolvency heat has caught on in the renewable energy space with Inox Wind being put under the corporate insolvency resolution process. In a rare instance, a Customs agent, Jeena & Company, has dragged Inox to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) over non-payment of dues totalling Rs 57 lakh. At the same time, Inox Wind has laid off close to 400 employees at its manufacturing unit. A former employee said Inox Wind was yet to clear his final settlement, which was pending for over four months. “The company has no cash flow whatsoever. It is not even able to fulfill its current oder," he said.
With the company issuing an advertisement seeking buyers, the insolvency proceedings begin.
In the absence ofabuyer the committee of creditors will formulate a restructuring plan.
The code gives a company 180 days for resolution failing which either the company can get an extension for another 90 days or go in for liquidation.
This comes just two months after Inox Wind sold off its portfolio of 260 MW of operational wind power projects and decided to exit the wind farming business.
The move was meant to help the parent company pare its debt.
Inox Wind kept the wind turbine manufacturing business for itself.
The company recently made headlines by winning a 250 Mw project atahistoric low bid of Rs 2.97 per unit in the maiden wind power project tender.
The project will come up in Tamil Nadu.
The portfolio sale was to JP Morgan Assetbacked Leap Green Energy Pvt Ltd. The projects are spread over Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and are owned and managed by IRL IR Jaisalmer (IRJL). The company did not disclose the transaction amount but by market estimates, the deal size is estimated to be close to Rs 1,300 crore.
Inox Wind executives had then said the deal would help it pare the group company´s debt and help it focus on its core business of wind turbine manufacturing.
Sector experts pointed out that the crisis was the result of aggressive expansion by Inox Wind and regulatory hurdles faced by the industry during the past four years.
The Business Standard, New Delhi, 15th July 2017
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