Om Logistics frontrunner to take over Balmer Lawrie JV from NCLT

KOLKATA : Delhi-based Om Logistics is now the frontrunner to take over Transafe Services Ltd. (TSL), a JV with Balmer Lawrie, a Miniratna I PSU, from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). This would be one of the rare instances where a JV of a PSU has changed hands through a corporate insolvency process. The Kolkata bench of the NCLT has approved the resolution plan.

Balmer Lawrie is a market leader in steel barrels, industrial greases and speciality lubricants, corporate travel and logistics services. It also has significant presence in most other businesses, it operates, viz, leather chemicals, logistics infrastructure etc in its 154 years of existence.

Om Logistics, the highest bidder during the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) for Transafe Services (TSL), has proposed to pay Rs 49 crore, whereas the total admitted claim was around Rs 533 crore. The secured financial creditors will have to take a haircut of 87%.

The resolution plan submitted by Om Logistics was, however, approved by 100% votes of the Committee of Creditors (CoC) of Kolkata-based TSL, a joint venture of Balmer Lawrie & Co (BL) and Balmer Lawrie — Van Leer (BLVL) with each holding 50% shares. The firm is specialised in the design and manufacturing of containers and tanks. Western Carriers (India), which offered Rs 47.6 crore, was declared the H2 bidder.

Syndicate Bank, merged into Canara Bank from April, 2020, had moved NCLT against TSL on the ground that the company had committed default. Other financial creditors are: Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Karur Vysya Bank and Bank of India, among others.

Source : Times Of India