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Official: India Government finalising response after top court cancels JSW Steel-Bhushan Deal

A government official revealed on Monday that the Indian government had discussed with banks an order by a court to cancel JSW Steel’s four-year old buyout of Bhushan Steel and Power, and was finalising its response.

The Supreme Court nullified JSW’s takeover of Bhushan Steel four years ago, under the country’s insolvency laws, and ordered its liquidation. This affected the deal’s bankers who had been paid.

"I've already discussed (the order with) all lenders." We have taken a stance, we've studied the judgement and we've gotten our lawyers' opinion on the judgment," M Nagaraju said, secretary of India's Department of Financial Services.

We are now deciding in the government how we will approach the judgement. We will be finalising soon."

Bhushan Power had a debt of over 470 billion rupees (5.58 billion dollars) to its creditors at the time it was shortlisted by the Reserve Bank of India in 2017 to be admitted to the country's Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

JSW Steel was the winner of the resolution application with a bid of 197 billion rupees ($2,35 billion) for Bhushan power. The acquisition is expected to be completed by 2021.

JSW Steel shares fell around 1% Monday after dropping 5.5% on Friday.

JSW announced to the exchanges that it would decide its next course of action on Friday.

(source: Reuters)