The lenders to Daewoo Motors India Ltd have changed course on the disposal of company assets, and have instead decided to lease the plant and facilities on a contract basis.

"The bids that we received were not favourable and, therefore, we have decided to give the facility on lease," P P Vora, chairman and managing director of the Industrial Development Bank of India, told Business Standard on Wednesday.

He said the details of the new scheme were being worked out by ICICI Bank, the lead lender, which was in talks with various players, including several automobile companies. A decision on the 1,400 cars lying in the plant or on the future of employees is yet to be taken.

Some lenders like the IDBI have now classified Daewoo Motors India as a non-performing asset. The Indian lenders have an exposure of around Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) to the company.

The $1 billion Daewoo plant in Surajpur, Uttar Pradesh, was taken over by the lenders after the debt recovery tribunal passed an order.

The employees of the plant, which has not been operational for a year, were however, protesting against the takeover.

The lenders had initially proposed to sell the assets of the company to an automobile firm and initiated talks with a number of players, including Tata Engineering, Maruti Udyog Ltd and General Motors.

General Motors has bought Daewoo assets in several countries, including those in South Korea. The deal, however, did not involve Daewoo Motors India.

The automobile companies, however, did not evince interest, forcing the lenders to work out a plan for a split-sale of assets, wherein it received queries from some manufacturers and automobile dealers who wanted to buy the stock of vehicles with the company.

Institutional sources said the inventory categorisation process initiated after the plant was taken over was nearing completion, and the facility could be leased out over the next few months. They, however, did not provide any timeframe.

The lenders would, however, require the debt recovery tribunal's permission to go ahead with the new plan, the sources pointed out.

A similar strategy had been drawn for another beleaguered project - Dabhol Power Company - where the lenders, led by IDBI, first decided to sell the assets, then opted for a split-sale, and finally decided to operationalise the plant in Maharashtra with the help of the National Thermal Power Corporation. The plan has, however, not worked out.