Torrent Offers Entire <span Class='webrupee'>₹</span>8,640  Cr Bid Amount As Upfront Cash In New Twist

Torrent emerged as the highest bidder in an e-auction process on 21 December.

The group offered a bid of net present value (NPV) worth ₹8,640 crore, which included upfront cash of ₹4,000 crore and the remaining ₹4,640 crore at zero interest over 3, 4, and 5 years.

A day after the e-auction, Hindujas revised their bid to ₹9,000 crore from ₹8,110 crore. Hindujas, who had come in second during the auction process, offered an upfront cash of ₹8,800 crore.

Challenging this move, the Torrent group approached the National Company Law Tribunal, which asked the lenders to keep the Hinduja group’s post-auction offer on hold till the final hearing.

Torrent claimed that Hinduja’s revised offer, after the e-auction, was illegal and non-compliant.

“We have not revised the net present value like the Hindujas. We have only converted the entire NPV into upfront cash since there was a difference of opinion over it," said a person aware of the matter

On an NPV basis, Torrent’s offer is still less than Hinduja’s revised offer of ₹9,000 crore.

The recent move by Torrent group will strengthen its position after it was outbid by the Hindujas.

The auction process for Reliance Capital has been marked by several twists and turns, with two frontrunners, Oaktree and the Cosmea-Piramal consortium, withdrawing from the race at the last minute.

Reliance Capital is the third major non-banking financial company to have bankruptcy proceedings initiated against it by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, or IBC, along with Srei Group and Dewan Housing Finance Corp. Ltd (DHFL). In November 2021, the Reserve Bank referred Reliance Capital for bankruptcy resolution after it defaulted on bonds worth ₹24,000 crore. Subsequently, Nageswara Rao Y. was appointed as the administrator for the corporate insolvency resolution process of the firm.

Reliance Capital is the third major non-banking financial company to have bankruptcy proceedings initiated against it by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, or IBC, along with Srei Group and DHFL. In November 2021, the Reserve Bank referred Reliance Capital for bankruptcy resolution after it defaulted on bonds worth ₹24,000 crore. Subsequently, Nageswara Rao Y. was appointed as the administrator for the corporate insolvency resolution process of the firm.

On Friday, shares of Reliance Capital rose 5% to ₹10.71.