Adani, KKR, Piramal among 14 prominent bidders for Rel Cap

RCAP IS THE THIRD BIG NBFC AFTER DHFL AND SREI TO BE DRAGGED BY RBI TO BANKRUPTCY COURT

Adani Finserve, KKR, Piramal Finance and Poonawala Finance are among the 14 prominent firms that have expressed interest to acquire debt-ridden Reliance Capital Ltd, promoted by the Anil Ambani Group, sources said.

The last date for submission of bids for the debt-ridden firm was extended to March 25 from the previous fixed date of March 11 by the Reserve Bankappointed administrator.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had on November 29 last year superseded the board of Reliance Capital Ltd (RCL) in view of payment defaults and serious governance issues.

This is the third large non-banking financial company (NBFC) against which the central bank has initiated bankruptcy proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) recently. The other two were Srei Group NBFC and Dewan Housing Finance

Corporation (DHFL).

The deadline has been extended on the request of some prospective bidders who have sought more time to submit the EOIs, sources said.

ArpWood, Varde Partners, Multiples Fund, Nippon Life, JC Flowers, Brookfield,

Oaktree, Apollo Global, Blackstone, and Hero Fincorp are the other major companies that have submitted Expressions of Interest (EoI) for Reliance Capital by 11 March, they said.

According to the sources, the vast majority of the bidders, who have submitted EOIs, have bid for the entire company. The bidders have two options - either they can bid for the entire RCL or any one or more than one of the eight subsidiaries of the NBFC firm.

The Reliance Capital subsidiaries include Reliance General Insurance, Reliance Nippon Life Insurance, Reliance Securities, Reliance Asset Reconstruction Company, Reliance Home Finance and Reliance Commercial Finance.

Following the takeover of the board, RBI-appointed Nageswara Rao Y as the administrator in relation to the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) of the company.

RBI subsequently filed an application for initiation of CIRP against the company at the Mumbai bench of the NCLT.