In the first phase of auction of debt-ridden Reliance Capital, Torrent Group has emerged as the highest bidder.
The Ahmedabad-based group put in a bid of Rs 8,640 crore to acquire Anil Ambani group’s NBFC entity, reports said on Wednesday.
The second highest bidder was Hinduja Group. Oaktree, which was also in the race, did not take part in the first phase.
The Cosmea Piramal consortium had already opted out of the bidding process.
Reliance Capital is the third large NBFC against which RBI has initiated bankruptcy proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). The other two were Srei Group NBFC and Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL).
The floor value for the auction was fixed at Rs 6,500 crore by the Committee of Creditors (CoC). According to sources, the increments in the auction process for the second and third phases have been set at Rs 1,000 crore each.
Under an NCLT order, lenders will have to complete the resolution process of Reliance Capital by January 31, 2023.
This is the first time that an e-auction of this scale is taking place for the resolution of an NBFC under IBC, a PTI report said.
The decision of ascending e-auction was taken at the behest of LIC and EPFO, which together control 35 per cent of the voting rights in the CoC.
The RBI had on November 29 last year superseded the board of Reliance Capital following payment defaults and governance issues.
Subsequently, Nageswara Rao Y was appointed as the administrator for the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) of the firm.
In February 2022, the administrator invited expressions of interest for the sale of the troubled NBFC.
