Adani Power is on the verge of acquiring bankrupt power company Coastal Energen for Rs 3,440 crore. According to two people familiar with the situation, Adani Power emerged as the winner late Oct 19 evening after two days of intense bidding. Jindal Power, the other bidder in the race, also dropped out, they said. The interest in Coastal Energen, which is in the process of going bankrupt, stems primarily from the fact that it is one of the few operational power plants for sale.
According to the people cited above, Adani Power's offer is made in collaboration with Dickey Alternative Investment Trust. The resolution professional had three firm bids: one from Sherisha Technologies, one from Naveen Jindal's Jindal Power, and one from Dickey Alternative. Adani Power collaborated with Dickey to offer a joint resolution plan because it had not submitted an expression of interest. After receiving plans from three applicants, lenders held a challenge mechanism auction for price discovery.
Radhakrishnan Dharmarajan, a PwC-backed resolution professional, invited bidders to participate in the auction at a starting price of 2,809.12 crore.
There were 18 rounds of bidding, which began on Oct 20 noon and lasted until 3 a.m., then resumed the next day and lasted until Saturday evening. In the nineteenth round, the Adani-Dickey team offered 3,440 crore, with Jindal Power failing to respond. The third applicant, Sherisha Technologies, did not participate in the bidding process.