Although fresh insolvency proceedings were suspended in May for a period of six months to help companies weather the coronavirus pandemic, ongoing proceedings continued and as many as 24 companies were ordered to go in for liquidation by NCLT benches across the country in about two months after the nationwide lockdown was imposed.
As many as 19 of these companies were defunct, according to the data of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI).
The total admitted amount of the companies was Rs 9,302.82 crore, and the total liquidation value was just 8.6 per cent of the total admitted amount at Rs 803.89 crore, the data showed. Data of some of the companies, including admitted dues and liquidation were not available.
Three corporate debtors which were ordered for liquidation as a going concern, or which were not defunct, were Bhatia Global Trading Private Ltd, Lotus Auto Engineering Private Ltd and Vintron Communication Private Ltd.
Bhatia Global Trading was ordered for liquidation by the Ahmedabad bench of the NCLT on May 29 while the New Delhi bench ordered the same for Lotus Auto Engineering and Vintron Communication on June 1 and 8, respectively.
The admitted claims for Bhatia Global Trading amounted to Rs 1273.93 crore while the liquidation value was Rs 250.92 crore. Similarly, the admitted claims for the CIRP of Lotus Auto Engineering was Rs 458.03 crore, while its liquidation value was Rs 87.69 crore.
The admitted claims due from Vintron Communication stood at Rs 29 lakh and its liquidation value was not calculated.
Some of the companies ordered for liquidation during April-June 2020, which were defunct, include Siddharth Tubes Ltd, Topworth Pipes and Tubes Private Ltd, Rathi Super Steels Ltd, NU TEK INDIA Ltd, with admitted claims of Rs 2,146.85 crore, Rs 2,859.10 crore, Rs 1,023.13 crore, and Rs 8.27 crore, respectively, and their liquidation value stood at Rs 12.69 crore, Rs 182 crore, Rs 184.14 crore, and Rs 37 lakh, respectively.
The admitted claims of Air Pegasus Private Ltd, another defunct company ordered for liquidation, was Rs 48.67 crore, while it had no liquidation value as per the data.
The IBBI collated the data of liquidations ordered by NCLT benches across the country by resolution professionals in over three years since the introduction of the IBC.
The data showed that, so far as much as 957 bankrupt companies have been ordered for liquidation under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.
