Potential buyers of assets of bankrupt Daewoo Motors India Ltd have won an extension of three or four weeks in which to submit bids, an official from a creditor bank told Reuters on Thursday.
A court receiver is attempting to sell the assets of the company, which was 91.6 per cent held by South Korea's failed Daewoo Corp, in six parts to repay creditors, after its sale as a stand-alone firm evoked no interest.
The official at the bank, a large lender to the now closed Indian car unit, said three to four bids had been submitted to the receiver for the assets by Wednesday, the previous deadline.
"But some large carmakers wrote to the receiver asking for an extension of the deadline since they had not completed due diligence," the official, who declined to be identified, said.
"Considering their importance and their keenness to bid, the receiver agreed to extend the time limit by three to four weeks."
He said the firms who had sought an extension were the Indian units of carmakers Ford and Hyundai, India's top truck maker Tata Engineering and Locomotive Co Ltd and JBM Tools Ltd.
The bids already submitted, will now not be opened until the new deadline expires towards the end of January, he added.
Indian banks and financial institutions including the Industrial Development Bank of India, ICICI Bank Ltd and the Export Import Bank of India have lent over Rs 10 billion ($208 million) to Daewoo India.
The firm, which has an integrated plant with a capacity to make 72,000 units a year on the outskirts of New Delhi, was the nation's third-largest car company before its parent went bankrupt in November 2000.
A Debt Recovery Tribunal in Mumbai had appointed a receiver to take over the Indian company's assets in May as the first step towards a sale, in response to an application by three financial institutions.
Daewoo made the Matiz hatchback and the mid-sized Cielo and Nexia cars in India. It also has an engine, transmission and axle plant, with a capacity to make 300,000 units a year which it set up to service export markets for the Cielo and Nexia models.
Daewoo's assets could be useful for carmakers attempting to expand operations in India, a market that is forecast to grow by 10 per cent a year this decade.
In all, 11 carmakers vie for a share of the nearly 600,000-a-year Indian market, including global players General Motors, Ford and Toyota. There are also more than 600 small auto parts makers in the country.
