Analysis from the record — not opinion about it.

The loudest IBC headlines belong to the whales — but the volume lives at the small end. As of today, 1,108 resolutions on the record closed with a plan value to creditors of ₹100 crore or less, 142 of them inside the last twelve months. This is not an occasional event; it is a steady, court-run market for whole companies at price points accessible to individuals, family offices and small funds.

Recovery in the bracket is respectable against the statutory floor: across sub-₹100 Cr resolutions where both figures are published, plans returned 106.6% of liquidation value in aggregate — creditors did better accepting these plans than shutting the companies down. And the acquisitions are not paper exits: 875 of these companies are MCA-active today, still filing, still operating under their new owners.

For context, the whole resolved universe stands at 1,505 cases with an average creditor haircut of 76.2% — the price of distress is real. But in the small bracket the entry ticket is small too: recent deals in our files closed from ₹45 lakh upward. The pipeline for the next ones — newly admitted companies and open EoI windows — refreshes weekly.

In the CIRP of Shubhada Tool Industries (Nagpur; NCLT Mumbai), two prospective resolution applicants stayed in the process to the end: Cian Agro Industries & Infrastructure Limited, a listed company, and Industrial Asset Transaction Services Private Ltd (IATSPT). The plan-approval order records what that rivalry did to price: offers moved from ₹8.20 crore through ₹8.90 crore to the ₹9.50 crore range across successive rounds before Cian's final plan of 23 August 2025 carried the Committee of Creditors with a 100% vote.

That is roughly a 16% improvement in creditor recovery generated by competitive tension alone — no change in the asset, only in the number of hands raised. The process design helped: a plan-participation deposit of ₹97.5 lakh kept both bidders committed through the rounds.

The read-through cuts both ways. For a creditor or resolution professional, keeping a second applicant alive is worth real money. For a buyer, the corollary is uncomfortable but useful: an uncontested deal is a cheaper deal — and the earlier you enter the funnel (at admission, before the EoI crowd forms), the more often you are the only serious hand in the room.

Most resolution plans are a number: pay creditors X, take the company. The plan approved for GF Toll Road Private Limited is a term sheet. Beyond an upfront amount of ₹16.25 crore (including payments to operational creditors), the successful applicant — V K Gupta & Associates — committed financial creditors to 53% of gross toll revenue should the road's concession period extend beyond 31 May 2026, and 71% of net arbitration-award proceeds if pending arbitration lands in the company's favour, both on receipt.

This is contingent consideration tied to the asset's own upside — the structure private M&A uses routinely, appearing inside a court-supervised insolvency. It solves the valuation deadlock that kills marginal deals: the buyer doesn't overpay for an uncertain concession extension, the creditors don't give it away, and the dispute is settled by what actually happens.

For anyone pricing an infrastructure or litigation-heavy CIRP, this file is the template: bid the certain value in cash, share the contingent value by formula. A ₹10 crore performance security and a defined equity infusion completed the package. The full waterfall sits in the dossier.

On paper, Evyavan Mercantile was finished. Registered valuers put fair value at ₹78,000 and liquidation value at ₹14,000 — a company that held effectively nothing. Form G drew no expressions of interest, and in February 2025 the Committee of Creditors (a single member, Ashika Global Securities, with an admitted claim of ₹8.63 crore) voted 100% in favour of liquidation.

Then the sole creditor did something the statistics say almost never happens: it asked the resolution professional to hold the liquidation filing and keep the door open. Months later a plan arrived from an individual — Mr. Bijay Kumar Dokania, a chartered accountant — offering ₹45 lakh plus CIRP costs, payable within 30 days. The CoC approved it unanimously in its 14th meeting, and the NCLT confirmed it in February 2026.

Two lessons. For creditors: a liquidation vote is not the end of the auction — a held filing costs little and preserved a recovery here that liquidation could never have produced against a ₹14,000 floor. For buyers: the "dead" cases in the feed are still purchasable — a clean corporate shell with its slate wiped by Section 31 has a price, and sometimes that price is ₹45 lakh.