Mumbai: Private equity fund Carlyle Group, special situations investor Aion Capital and France’s Schneider Electric are among potential suitors for Su-Kam Power Systems, which is facing corporate insolvency proceedings, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

All the suitors have submitted their expressions of interest and are expected to make binding offers by the deadline of 10 August, the people said, requesting anonymity due to confidentiality of the bidding process.

Interest from Carlyle and Aion in Su-Kam underlines growing zeal among large private equity funds to crack deals in the insolvency space where several well-known consumer brands are likely to be up for change of control.

Industry watchers say that while resolution of large assets, such as those in Reserve Bank of India’s initial list of 12 companies, was led by strategic buyers such as Tata Steel and JSW Steel to name a few, the next round of insolvency cases will likely witness greater participation from distressed assets funds.

“Going ahead, we expect active participation from private equity funds in resolving corporate insolvency cases” said K.V.S. Manian, president for corporate, institutional and investment banking at Kotak Mahindra Bank. “Deal sizes in some of the early cases were way too large for the funds to participate but there will be far more activity in the mid-size space,” he added.

Su-Kam has dues outstanding of nearly ₹ 370 crore with IDBI Bank and State Bank of India having the largest share.

The company was referred to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for bankruptcy proceedings by SBI in November last year. It was admitted in April by the court, following which Rajiv Chakraborty, partner, PwC India, was appointed resolution professional.

PwC didn’t respond to an email until press time on Wednesday.

Su-Kam claims to be one of India’s largest retail power solutions companies and produces a wide range of devices which includes inverters, batteries and solar panels. The company was founded in 1998 by local entrepreneur Kunwwer Sachdev.

For Carlyle, which has only invested in pure play growth and buyout deals in India so far, the potential transaction would mark its foray into the bankruptcy space where several large assets have changed hands in recent months.

The question is why they failed to acquire Su-kam when there was so much interest by all the big players and that answer is to be given by the bankers involved and the NCLT court appointed Resolution Professional. Why the Su-kam went to the liquidation when Mr. Sachdev’s company Su-kam to the bankers it was valued in the process more than Rs 300 crores. Why Delhi Court gave a judgement in favor of Mr. Kunwer Sachdev and told the IBBI to make guidelines on the process of COC functioning. COC guidelines to be made.

Mr. Sachdev lost his entire life building the company and at the last stage of his life he is going under the Personal Insolvency process to sell his home.