Reliance Capital's Committee of Creditors (CoC) shall vote on a proposal to allow a second round of e-auction, sources told CNBC-TV18 on Monday, as Torrent and Hinduja Global have sought to revise their bids.

Lenders may set base bids for round 2 at Rs 9,500 crore with Rs 8,000 crore in upfront cash, sources said, adding that all four suitors — Torrent, Hinduja, Piramal-Cosmea and Oaktree — may be allowed to bid in the fresh round. This is even as Torrent has sought a stay on voting by lenders to consider the second round of e-auction.

The result of the voting by the CoC is likely to be declared by Wednesday.

Last month, the Torrent Group and Hinduja Global participated in the e-auctions, with the former making the highest bid of Rs 8,640 crore on December 21 for acquiring the non-banking financial company (NBFC) firm set up by the Anil Ambani Group.

Two days later, Hinduja Global submitted a revised bid worth Rs 9,000 crore in net present value (NPV) terms for debt-ridden Reliance Capital to lenders, topping the offer made by Torrent Investment in the auction conducted as part of its resolution process. Hinduja submitted its bid after the e-auction process had ended.

However, Torrent objected RCap’s Administrator from considering the revised offer from the Hinduja Group and stated that entertaining the revised offer would be a violation of the process. It pleaded with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to direct the RCap administrator not to accept the revised offer.

Torrent got interim relief from NCLT, which asked CoC to disregard Hinduja’s revised offer till the final order. The matter is due to be heard on January 12 next, as the tribunal denied any urgent hearing.

The NCLT has set a deadline of March 31, 2023, for the completion of RCL's resolution, which is already delayed by over a year.

Reliance Capital is the third large NBFC against which the central bank has initiated bankruptcy proceedings under IBC. The other two were Srei Group NBFC and Dewan Housing Finance Corporation. The RBI subsequently filed an application for initiation of CIRP against the company at the Mumbai bench of NCLT.

In February last year, the RBI appointed an administrator to invite the expression of interest for the sale of RCL.

First Published:Jan 9, 2023 4:25 PM IST