A bankruptcy court on Monday allowed the Intas Pharmaceuticals-Shamrock Pharmachemi consortium’s application to acquire Unimark Remedies. Asset Reconstruction Company India Ltd (Arcil) is also part of the consortium.
The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), comprising judicial member Kishore Vemulapalli and technical member Prabhat Kumar, in an oral order approved the resolution plan for the assets of the now-defunct drug maker.
A detailed order was not available at the time of filing this report. The resolution professional for Unimark Remedies, Intas, Shamrock and Arcil did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
Mumbai-based Unimark Remedies has admitted debt of about Rs 1,097 crore. The consortium has offered about Rs 250 crore to acquire the company through the bankruptcy process.
Unimark Remedies was admitted for the corporate insolvency resolution process on a plea filed by ICICI Bank in 2018 after the company defaulted on dues of over Rs 150 crore. The tribunal, while allowing the application, had appointed Amit Gupta as the resolution professional for the company.
The tribunal had on February 9 completed the hearing in the case and reserved its order.
Prior to that, the consortium’s counsel, Nausher Kohli, had informed the tribunal that its proposal had received approval from 72% of the members of the company’s committee of creditors.
Advocates Mahima Singh and Arveena Sharma, who appeared for the resolution professional, told the tribunal that the lenders had approved the plan on January 1, 2019.
This is the second major acquisition in the pharmaceutical sector through the bankruptcy process. Last year, the NCLT allowed US-based food technology startup Perfect Day’s acquisition of Sterling Biotech.
Established in 1993, Unimark Remedies has two manufacturing plants, at Ahmedabad and Vapi in Gujarat.
According to the latest data from the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Board of India, 6,199 companies had been brought into administration until December-end under the bankruptcy code. Of these, resolution plans had been approved for 611.
