Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas acted as legal counsel for Resolution Professional (RP) and Monitoring Committee of Sharon Bio-Medicine Limited in the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) of Sharon Bio-Medicine Limited (Sharon), a listed Indian pharmaceutical company. During the CIRP under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (Code), the Resolution Plan (Resolution Plan) submitted by Innova Captab Limited (‘Successful Resolution Applicant’/ ‘Innova’) and approved the Hon’ble National Company Law Tribunal, Mumbai Bench (NCLT) was successfully implemented, resulting in acquisition of 100% shareholding of Sharon through its subsidiary Univentis Medicare Limited.
The Project & Project Finance, Insolvency & Dispute Resolution Practices of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) advised Mr. Pulkit Gupta, Resolution Professional (RP) during the CIRP till the successful approval of the Resolution Plan, including evaluation and compliance check of the resolution plans submitted by the prospective resolution applicants, and negotiation on the resolution plans.
The CAM Team also advised and represented the RP in various litigations before the Hon’ble NCLT, the Hon’ble National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, New Delhi and the Hon’ble Supreme Court.
The Firm also advised the Monitoring Committee (comprising of the erstwhile RP (as Monitoring Agent), the nominee of the Committee of Creditors (CoC) and the Successful Resolution Applicant) constituted for supervision and implementation of the Resolution Plan. The Resolution Plan was successfully implemented on June 30, 2023, culminating into acquisition of 100% shareholding of the Corporate Debtor by the subsidiary of the Resolution Applicant, i.e., Univentis Medicare Limited.
The transaction team was led by Madhav Kanoria, Partner; with support from Surbhi Pareek, Principal Associate; Srideepa Bhattacharyya, Principal Associate; Anush Mathkar, Principal Associate; Jeta Shree, Senior Associate; Neha Shivhare, Senior Associate; Nayani Agarwal, Associate and Jayesh Karnawat, Associate; who advised the Resolution Professional during the entire corporate insolvency resolution process, including invitation, evaluation and final approval of the resolution plan as well as litigation related aspects of the matter. The team also advised the Committee of Creditors and Monitoring Committee on various aspects of resolution process from time to time.
As part of the transaction, the CIRP was initiated for Sharon pursuant to order of the Hon’ble NCLT, Mumbai, dated April 11, 2017. This is one of the few cases under the Code, in which the earlier successful resolution applicant defaulted in implementing its approved resolution plan leading to inordinate delay in completion of the CIRP. Subsequently, after prolonged litigation and upon the directions of the Supreme Court vide order dated February 28, 2022 and the Hon’ble NCLT vide order dated June 3, 2022, fresh CIRP was initiated in relation to the Corporate Debtor. During the re initiated CIRP, the Resolution Plan of the Innova was approved by the CoC and the Hon’ble NCLT and was successfully implemented on June 30, 2023. The Resolution Plan resolves a total debt aggregating to INR 9,20,31,69,711 of the Corporate Debtor of which the debt owed to the financial creditors was approximately INR 8,91,77,02,779.
Other parties and advisors to the transaction included EY Restructuring LLP (acted as advisor for Mr. Pulkit Gupta -Resolution Professional /Sharon Bio-Medicine Limited).
The Resolution Plan was approved by the NCLT, Mumbai on 17th May, 2023 and transaction closed on 30thJune, 2023.
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About Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas
Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (cam) is India’s leading law firm with a global reputation of being trusted advisers to its clients. The Firm advises a large and diverse set of clients, including domestic and foreign commercial enterprises, financial institutions, private equity and venture capital funds, start-ups, government and regulatory bodies. The Firm generalists, specialists and senior ex-regulators expertly guide clients across a spectrum of transactions, sectors and regulations. With 1000 lawyers and 170 Partners, the Firm is the largest full-service law firm in India and offices in key business centres at Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chennai, GIFT City and also in Singapore.
The Firm recently received “Innovation in Advancing Markets” award at the FT Innovative Lawyers Asia Pacific 2022 Awards and the “National Law Firm of the Year: India” award at the IFLR Asia Pacific 2022 awards ceremony. The Firm had won “India Deal Firm of the Year” at the ALB India Awards and “Firm of the Year” at the IFLR1000 India Awards in 2021.
