The proposed takeover by Gurgaon-based Apollo Tyres of Ohio-based Cooper Tire & Rubber remained on tenterhooks, as the US company’s bid in a Delaware court to force the deal to close continued unresolved.

Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi and Sullivan Cromwell represented Apollo on the M&A deal, as reported by Legally India in June, with Jones Day having represented Cooper.

Cooper claimed that Apollo was trying to back out of the deal after union and industrial action in the US and China, reported Bloomberg, and that the Indian company agreed that it would use its reasonable best efforts to complete the deal or pay $112.5m in “reverse breakup fees”.

Apollo’s US lawyers wanted Cooper’s case to force a closing thrown out, and claimed in a letter to the court on October 18 that closing conditions to the deal had not been satisfied.

The deal, if completed, would be the largest takeover of an automobile-parts company since 2007.