The Kolkata bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Tuesday admitted an insolvency petition against Binani Cement based on a  referral by one of its lenders, Bank of Baroda, after the cement company failed to repay a sum of INR970m.

Bank of Baroda has appointed Vijaykumar V Iyer of Deloitte India as the interim resolution professional (IRP) to oversee the insolvency process.

According to a report by the Financial Express (India) the company owes a consortium of lenders close to INR30,429.3m. Edelweiss ARC, which has bought over a chunk of the debt from bankers, is now the leader of the consortium.

Admitting the case, a bench of the NCLT said the IRP should convene a meeting of the committee of creditors and submit a resolution passed by the committee.

At the previous hearing, Binani’s counsel had argued Bank of Baroda had failed to get an approval from the joint lenders’ forum (JLF) led by Central Bank of India. He said that despite a larger exposure to Binani Cement, Central Bank did not initiate insolvency proceedings. The counsel for Bank of Baroda, Rishav Banerjee, observed that although the company’s loans had been rescheduled via a corporate debt restructuring process, it had failed to pay its dues.