Deadline to bid for Moser Baer Solar extended to June 26

The committee of creditors (CoC) for bankrupt Moser Baer Solar has extended the deadline by a month to June 26 for inviting bids for assets of the solar cells manufacturer, according to resolution professional Arvind Garg.

The deadline to submit bids for the company, which owes around Rs 2,244 crore to its lenders, was May 26 earlier.

"The deadline has now been extended to June 26," Garg told PTI.

"Since we have time in hand, and they (CoC) also thought that we could wait and give chance to others as well, we decided to extend the deadline by a month. We hope to get more response in this second call," he added.

As per the conditions laid in the EoI (expression of interest), companies with a net worth of over Rs 80 crore and a turnover of over Rs 200 crore can bid for the company.

It may be noted that the company's parent firm, Moser Baer India, which owes more than Rs 3,700 crore to its lenders, is also undergoing insolvency procedure.

"In such situations where the parent company is also facing insolvency procedure, there are chances that the response received for the subsidiary (Moser Baer Solar) could be subdued," an industry expert said on condition of anonymity.

Moser Baer Solar was dragged to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) by state-run Central Bank of India last November on over Rs 114-crore loan default.

The resolution process needs to be completed within 180 days from the date of admission of application in NCLT, with an option to extend it by 90 days, as per the IBC.

Moser Baer Solar, which was set up in 2005-07, has crystalline cells capacity of 185 MW, the crystalline modules capacity of 200 MW and thin film modules capacity of 50 MW.

Its financial stress increased following rising imports from China. The company had sought restructuring of Rs 956 crore of debt in 2012-13, but the recast had failed in October 2016.