The committee of creditors (CoC) of Reliance Capital Ltd (RelCap) has reportedly decided to extend the first round of auction for the Anil Ambani-company.

All the eligible bidders of the first round of voting, including Piramal Capital and Cosmea Financial, can participate apart from the Torrent group, the Hindujas, and Oaktree Capital.

After a voting on Tuesday, the lenders of RelCap unanimously decided to extend the first round of auction, Bloomberg Quint said.

The lenders clarified this is not a second round but an extension of the first round. The CoC is also likely to seek an extension of the month-end deadline to finish the resolution at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

After the parties had submitted their bids by December 21, Torrent Investments made the highest offer of Rs 8,640 crore based on net present value (NPV), arrived at after discounting future cash flows.

The Hinduja group offered Rs 8,110 crore on NPV basis, while the Piramal Enterprises-Cosmea Financial Holdings team did not participate in the auction.

After the bids got over, both Torrent and Hindujas sweetened their bids by offering more upfront cash.

All eyes are now on the NCLT which will hear a plea of Torrent Investments on Thursday to stop CoC from conducting one more round of bidding for Reliance Capital.

Last week, the NCLT, comprising Justice P.N. Deshmukh and Shyam Babu Gautam, declined to grant a stay on Torrent Investments’ plea seeking to stop the voting.

While the auction may be held on January 19 or January 20, subject to the NCLT order, the buzz is that the lenders may fix a minimum threshold price of Rs 9,500 crore on NPV basis, which would include Rs 8,000 crore as an upfront cash payment as they seek value maximisation. So far, all offers for Reliance Capital have been below the Rs 12,500-13,000 crore liquidation value.

Reliance Capital, which has a consolidated debt of Rs 40,000 crore, is the third largest non-banking financial company (NBFC) against which the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) initiated bankruptcy proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

In February last year, the RBI-appointed administrator had invited expressions of interest for the sale of RelCap. The deadline to complete the resolution process is January 31, 2023.