Gujarat-based Torrent Group has won the race to acquire the entire assets of debt-laden Reliance Capital (RCap) with the highest bid of ₹8,640 crore. The bidding was reduced to a two-horse race with Hinduja Group being the only other participant in the e-auction process.

While Oaktree Capital stayed away from the e-auction on Wednesday, a consortium of Cosmea Financial and Piramal Group had pulled out of the race on Tuesday, the eve of the e-bidding date.

Also Read: RCap lenders finalise e-auction, base price at Rs 5,300 crore

The e-auction, which ended after three rounds on Wednesday, saw Hinduja’s bidding amount closer to that of Torrent’s, sources close to the development said. While the exact amount of Hinduja’s bid could not be immediately ascertained, sources pegged it at about Rs 8,500 crore.

Following the completion of the e-auction, RCap’s committee of creditors (CoC) will meet on Thursday to finalise the winner.

“The CoC will shortlist the successful resolution applicant based on a number of factors, including the resolution plan that was submitted earlier, the deferred payment structure and the net present value (NPV) offered by the bidders, among others,” one of the sources said.

Oaktree Capital, a bidder for RCap as a core investment company (CIC), had earlier hinted at exiting the ongoing resolution process after the CoC had turned down its requests for additional information. The global asset management firm had sought RCap’s financial results till December 31, 2022, and extending the e-auction date to January 31, 2023.

Also Read: Cosmea-Piramal exits Reliance Capital bidding race

The lenders had termed Oaktree’s demands as impractical and rejected them earlier. As per an earlier National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) order, lenders have to complete RCap’s resolution process by January 31, 2023. This had also prevented the CoC from extending the e-auction deadline.

The Cosmea-Piramal consortium had pulled out of the race, saying the changes in the resolution process had made acquisition of the former Anil Ambani group company “unviable”. A spate of changes in the bidding process had “significantly altered” the entire bidding process, the consortium had informed the administrator.

At the time of submitting the binding bids, Hinduja had placed a ₹5,060-crore bid, which included an upfront payment of ₹4,100 crore, with an NPV offer of ₹4,800 crore. Torrent had quoted ₹4,500 crore, with an upfront payment of ₹1,100 crore and an NPV of ₹4,200 crore.

On December 13, the CoC had hiked the auction base price by nearly 25% to ₹6,500 crore. Initially, the base price was fixed at ₹5,231 crore, which was the highest bid placed by the Cosmea-Piramal consortium. Further, the increments in the auction process for the second and third rounds were also set at ₹1,000 crore each, which the bidders felt were “very steep”. An increment of ₹500 crore was set for round four and ₹250 crore for every subsequent round.