August 2018, Mint’s Deborshi Chaki reports the shortlist for Su-Kam’s insolvency-driven change of control — Carlyle, Aion Capital and Schneider Electric among the suitors, alongside three other potential bidders.
Mint’s Deborshi Chaki reports from Mumbai that Carlyle Group, special-situations investor Aion Capital and France’s Schneider Electric are among the potential suitors for Su-Kam Power Systems, which was then in corporate insolvency proceedings. Three other bidders were also in the race. Expressions of interest were in; binding offers were expected by 10 August 2018.
Who was at the table
The shortlist read like a who’s-who of India-focused capital: Carlyle, one of the largest PE funds in the world; Aion Capital, a special-situations vehicle built precisely for distressed and insolvency deals; and Schneider Electric, a strategic industrial buyer with a global footprint in power management. Three additional bidders were in the process but had asked to stay unnamed until the binding round.
Why the interest was so heavy
Mint’s framing was that the interest from Carlyle and Aion underlined a growing appetite among large PE funds for insolvency-space deals in India — a period when several well-known consumer brands were about to change hands under the IBC framework. Su-Kam sat squarely in that bucket: a brand with real recall, a large distribution footprint, meaningful IP, and a manufacturing base that made it worth a strategic bid too.
“All the suitors have submitted their expressions of interest and are expected to make binding offers by the deadline of 10 August.”— Mint / Deborshi Chaki • 1 August 2018
Where the story lands for Kunwer Sachdev
The August 2018 report captured the point at which the founder’s own control of Su-Kam Power Systems was moving out of his hands and into a Committee of Creditors process. Sachdev’s formal exit from Su-Kam followed in 2019. His subsequent chapter — mentoring Su-vastika Systems into lithium storage — is what most of the current press coverage on him is about.
‘Carlyle, Aion, Schneider in race to acquire Su-Kam’ — Mint (livemint.com) →