Mercantile Ports and Logistics Ltd (LON: MPL) shares jumped as much as 65% to an intraday high of 2.65p after the company said final oral submissions had been completed in proceedings concerning its Karanja Port subsidiary.
The AIM-listed ports operator said it made final submissions in rejoinder before India’s National Company Law Tribunal on 24 September.
All parties have now been instructed to file their written submissions by 8 October 2026.
A judgment on Mercantile Ports’ challenge to the rejection of its Section 12A proposal is expected after that process has been completed.
The company is seeking to preserve control of the Karanja Port asset and argues that it was not given a genuine opportunity to repay the outstanding debt despite having financed, developed and constructed the port.
Mercantile Ports’ legal counsel has argued that, had lenders provided a clear and enforceable mechanism for repayment, the debt would already have been settled.
The company has also alleged that Prudent ARC and certain lenders obstructed completion of its proposed one-time settlement and acted to facilitate the transfer of the asset to a predefined party.
Those claims remain allegations advanced by Mercantile Ports in the proceedings and have not been established by the tribunal.
The company maintains that repeated attempts to repay the debt in full were frustrated, leading to a legal process that has now continued for more than a year.
For investors, the sharp share-price reaction reflects the importance of the Karanja Port asset to Mercantile Ports and the possibility that a favourable ruling could materially change the company’s position.
However, the tribunal has not yet delivered its judgment, and there is no certainty that Mercantile Ports’ challenge will succeed.
The immediate catalyst is therefore straightforward: completion of written submissions by 8 October followed by the National Company Law Tribunal’s decision on the company’s challenge to the rejected 12A proposal.
Until that ruling is issued, the investment case remains highly dependent on the outcome of the legal proceedings.
