In a much-sought relief to the bidders, the National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT’s) Mumbai bench on Tuesday extended the deadline to complete the resolution process of beleaguered Reliance Capital (RCap) to January 31.
Under the current schedule, the timeline to file the final resolution plan before the NCLT ends on November 1.
This is the third time the deadline is being extended. Under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), a bankruptcy process has to be closed within 180 days, and June 3 was the original cut-off date to close the resolution process.
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Any extension of the deadline to complete the resolution process might also result in the present cut-off date to submit binding bids being moved further. The present deadline to submit binding bids ends on October 31.
The bidders to the process had sought more time to complete due diligence processes of RCap’s group firms, and wanted the November deadline to be extended by 2-4 months.
A consortium led by Piramal Enterprises had sought an extension of 12 weeks, while Advent International wanted a 16-week extension. IndusInd Bank had sought a 10-week extension, the extension by Oaktree Capital was 12 weeks and Zurich Insurance wanted an 8-week extension, sources had told FE earlier.
RCap’s administrator also wanted an extension to at least February 1, 2023, for the completion of the former Anil Ambani group firm’s entire resolution process.
Reliance Capital had received 14 non-binding bids for its multiple businesses, with six firms evincing interest for the entire company, and the remaining bidding for its multiple subsidiaries.
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Torrent Group, IndusInd Bank, Oaktree Capital, Cosmea Financial, Authum Investment and B Right Real Estate submitted bids in the range of Rs 4,000 crore-4,500 crore for RCap’s entire assets. Piramal Finance has bid for Rs 3,600 crore for Reliance General Insurance business, while Zurich Insurance’s bid stood at Rs 3,700 crore and Advent International had bid Rs 7,000 crore for Reliance General Insurance. Jindal Steel & Power and UVARC have submitted bids for RCap’s ARC business. For other assorted assets of RCap, three bidders — Choice Equity, Global Fincap and Grand Bhawan — have submitted the bids.
