End of the road for Dunlop in India, for now

[caption id="attachment_2027" align="alignnone" width="636"] Closed operations at Dunlop India Plant[/caption]

Dunlop India has been dealing with lockouts, plant shut-downs and operative restructuring for quite some time now. Now, the Calcutta High Court has ordered its official liquidator to take control of all assets belonging to Dunlop India Ltd. The liquidator is also authorised to take control of further company transactions.

The company's wound-up status was confirmed by the Justice Sanjib Banerjee back in December when Dunlop India's representatives appeared before the High Court. During the court session on December 17, Banerjee offered Dunlop a way to avert the official liquidation. In those terms, he wanted the company to show “its bona fide” or willingness to repay its debt by depositing a sum of Rs 500 million with the official liquidator before December 22. The court indicated that after this deposit, the repayment scheme can be given a chance.

At that time, Banerjee warned, “In default of such amount being produced in court as deposit, the application pertaining to the scheme is likely to be dismissed without any further consideration,”

On December 22, the Calcutta High Court reported that Dunlop India failed to deposit Rs 500 million and confirmed that no Supreme Court stay exists. “Accordingly, CA No. 495 of 2014 and CA No. 496 of 2014, which are the company’s applications for making payments to its unsecured creditors, are dismissed… The Official Liquidator should now proceed to take possession of all books, records, documents, assets and properties of the company in liquidation and take control of its transactions.”

In 2005, Dunlop India was acquired by Ruia Group and with it came the Indian marketing rights to the Dunlop tyre brand name.