Brookfield, Ares SSG Capital, Edelweiss, Blackstone’s asset reconstruction arm, Multiples private equity, JC Flowers and Co, True North and TPG are among the 55 prospective resolution applications (PRAs) to have submitted expressions of interest (EOIs) to acquire debt-laden Reliance Capital Ltd and its assets.
Among strategic entities – Yes Bank, Piramal consortium, Adani Finserve, InCred Capital, Bandhan Financial Holdings, Motilal Oswal Finvest as well as financial services arm, Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company, HDFC Ergo General Insurance, Tata AIG General Insurance, among others have also showed interest in acquiring part and/or full assets of Reliance Capital, which is facing bankruptcy proceedings.
The provisional list of eligible prospective resolution applicants was disclosed by Reliance Capital in a regulatory filing late Monday evening.
In December, Reliance Capital, the financial services holding company of Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Group, became the fourth financial services firm to be admitted for insolvency by a Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). Previously, Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL) in November 2019 and in October, two Srei Group firms were taken up for insolvency process.
Former Bank of Maharashtra Executive Director Nageswar Rao Y was appointed as the Administrator and is managing the bidding process. Debt of over Rs 25,330 crore has been admitted before the NCLT.
Mumbai-based Authum Investment and Infrastructure Ltd, which won bids for Reliance Commercial Finance and Reliance Home Finance, has also bid for Reliance Capital, its third potential Reliance Group firm.
Some of the other applicants interested to acquire assets of Reliance Capital are Arpwood Partners Fund, UV Special Situation Fund, RKG Fund, MOPE Investment Advisors Pvt. Ltd (MOPE) - the PE arm of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, NewQuest Advisors Singapore, Advent International’s Melintina Ltd, Nippon Life Insurance, etc.
Piramal Enterprises (lead partner) along with PAG and India Resurgent Fund; Edelweiss Alternative Asset Advisors; JC Flowers; Jindal Power Ltd; International Asset Reconstruction Company (IARC) which is backed by US private equity major Blackstone and Torrent Investment have bid for entire assets of Reliance Capital.
The provisional list is subject to responses from certain applicants based on the clarification sought by administrator Rao.
Reliance Capital has over Rs 90,000 crore worth of assets under management (AUM) with more than one crore customers and 18000 workforce.
In November last year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) superseded the board of Reliance Capital in view of payment defaults and serious governance issues. Later it dragged the Anil Ambani-group firm to a Mumbai bankruptcy court initiating a resolution process.
The RBI has also formed a 3-member committee including Sanjeev Nautiyal, ex-DMD, State Bank of India; Srinivasan Varadarajan, ex-DMD, Axis Bank and Praveen P Kadle, ex-MD & CEO, Tata Capital; as advisors to the Administrator.