Sesa Goa secures stay order against Bellary sell off

Thursday, 27 Jan 2011
Press Trust of India reported that Vedanta Group firm Sesa Goa has secured a stay order from the Delhi High Court against the decision taken by Industrial Financial Corporation of India on Bellary Steel sell off in which JSW Steel was declared the highest bidder.
According to the Delhi High Court website, next hearing has been scheduled on February 22 on the matter.

Mr PK Mukherjee MD of Sesa Goa told PTI “Our dispute is against the process followed by IFCI in the bidding. We have already taken up the matter with the Delhi High Court, which stayed the sale (order) last week.”
He told “Our dispute is with the process. We were the only qualified bidder initially and declared successful bidder verbally. Our people were told to come after lunch to collect the allotment letter. When we came back after lunch, we were told that there is another bidder and that bid is only marginally higher than our price.”
He added that “The stay order came after we filed a petition and next hearing will be in mid February.”

Mr Mukherjee while clarifying that Sesa Goa does not have any issues against JSW Steel said “We have no problems with JSW at all... Our dispute is with the process, which IFCI followed.”
Last month, a consortium of lenders led by IFCI had declared JSW Steel as the highest bidder for acquiring the assets of Bellary Steel and Alloys, where Sesa Goa was the only other qualified contender. While Sesa Goa's bid was at INR 206 crore, slightly more than the reserve price of INR 205.63 crore, JSW quoted INR 210 crore.
(Sourced from PTI)