Reliance Capital Lenders Meeting Today to Address Bidders Concerns

Mumbai, April 20 (IANS) The lenders of Reliance Capital are meeting Thursday to discuss the various issues raised by the bidders and find a mutually acceptable solution on those issues.

The two bidders, Torrent Investment and IIHL, have raised multiple issues with the lenders and they want these issues to be settled to their satisfaction before they go for the second round of auction, scheduled for April 26.

According to the sources, the key issues raised by the bidders are:

1. The bidders want an assurance from the lenders that the extended challenge mechanism, i.e., second round of auction will offer finality to the resolution process and there will be no further negotiations with the bidders after the auction.

The two major lenders, i.e., LIC and EPFO are not agreeing to this. They want room for further negotiations in case the final value discovered in the extended challenge mechanism is less than the liquidation value. The liquidation value of Reliance Capital is Rs 13,000 crore. Both LIC and EPFO have 30 per cent voting rights in the COC. Their combined admitted claims are Rs 8,200 crore, out of the total admitted claims of Rs 25,434 crore.

2. The bidders have also demanded that the toppling bids should not be allowed, which means that no bid outside the challenge mechanism should be accepted. Bidders want an undertaking from the COC on this. In the first round of auction, IIHL's Rs 9,000 crore post auction bid led to the litigation between the lenders and Torrent.

3. The bidders also want transparency in the extended challenge mechanism. They have asked the lenders to disclose after every round how many bidders are participating in the next round and the value of their bids.

4. The proposed extended challenge mechanism suggests that even if there is one bidder left in the race, the remaining rounds have to be completed. Bidders have raised concern on this. They want that in case only one bidder is left and the other bidders have bowed out of the race, the auction must end at that very round itself.

5. The terms of "force majeure" are also a bone of contention between the lenders and bidders, as bidders have sought changes in that.

6. Another issue raised by the bidders is the condition precedent for the zero date to pay. At present the successful bidder has to pay the resolution value within 90 days from the NCLT approval. The bidders want that the zero date for payment should be once NOC from all the lenders have been received.