The lenders of Reliance Capital Ltd met on Tuesday to review the resolution plans of both bidders — the Torrent group and the Hinduja group.
Torrent wants the Committee of Creditors (CoC) to allow it a charge on Reliance Cap’s assets for securing deferred financing, sources said, adding, lenders will continue to engage with the bidders. The committee of creditors (CoC) has also decided to file an extension application with the NCLT to extend the resolution process completion timeline from January 31 to February 15, 2023.
Earlier in the day, the insolvency process of debt-ridden Reliance Capital hit a roadblock as the NCLT Mumbai stayed the resolution process on the plea of the Torrent group. The stay order was issued by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) as the Ahmedabad-based Torrent Group challenged the revised bid from the Hinduja group, sources said.
The Torrent group, which emerged as the highest bidder with an Rs 8,640 crore offer, had moved the NCLT-Mumbai against the Hinduja group’s late revised bid, which it had submitted after the completion of the e-auction process on December 21. A day after the e-auction, the Hinduja group, the promoter of IndusInd Bank, revised its offer from Rs 8,110crore to Rs 9,000 crore.
This is the first time that an e-auction of this scale is taking place for the resolution of an NBFC under the bankruptcy code. The decision of the e-auction was taken at the behest of LIC and EPFO, which together control 35 per cent of the voting rights in the CoC. Torrent claimed that Hinduja’s revised offer, after the e-auction, is illegal and non-compliant. The NCLT has asked the administrator to file a reply on Torrent’s application, sources said. The hearing is now scheduled for the next week.