Lenders extend Reliance Home Finance bid deadline to January-end

Move follows request by suitors; only two of six contenders submitted binding bids, the other four came with riders

Lenders to Reliance Home Finance — part of the debt-ridden Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group — have extended the bidding deadline to end-January next year, following requests from bidders.

According to a source close to the development, only two bidders — Avenue-Asset Reconstruction Company (India), or ARCIL, consortium and Authum Investment & Infrastructure — have submitted binding bids. 

Four companies made non-binding bids, but with riders. 

Reliance Home Finance was sent for debt resolution by banks after it failed to repay its Rs 12,000-crore debt.

A source said the two bidders opposed the deadline extension and threatened to walk away from the process.

While US-based fund Avenue and ARCIL have made a joint bid, Authum Investment & Infrastructure — a listed non-banking financial company — has also placed its bid.

The other four bids, which are non-binding in nature, have also not placed the mandatory bid bond of Rs 10 crore and have sought more time to complete due diligence.

The other two ARCs, namely Invent and Alchemist, have also submitted conditional bids which are non-compliant with the bids’ condition and have not paid the mandatory bid bond of Rs 10 crore. 

The lenders at their December 17 meeting have also invited revised bids from all bidders. 

In August this year, lenders, led by Bank of Baroda (BoB), had invited expressions of interest (EoIs) for the assets of Reliance Home Finance and Reliance Commercial Finance — both arms of Reliance Capital. 

A separate process for Reliance Capital and its assets is already on, with banks receiving 60 EoIs for the company as well as for its assets. JM Financial and SBI Capital Markets are running the sale process for Reliance Capital assets.

 The resolution process of Reliance Home Finance is being managed by BOB Capital Markets and Ernst & Young.