Lenders mull 90-day extension to close Reliance Capital resolution process

Lenders on Wednesday discussed a proposal for 90 days of extension to close the resolution process of debt-ridden Reliance Capital Ltd (RCL) promoted by the Anil Ambani Group, sources said.

The Committee of Creditors (CoC) of Reliance Capital met on Wednesday to discuss bids received.

As per the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), the administrator has to close the resolution of RCL within 180 days i.e, by June 3, 2022.

Once the 90 days extension is taken, the CoC will have time till September 3 to close the process.

Adani Finserve, ICICI Lombard, Tata AIG, HDFC Ergo, and Nippon Life Insurance are among the 54 firms that have expressed interest to acquire the NBFC.

According to sources, the CoC in its meeting also discussed seeking an extension of 90 days as majority of the lenders were in favour of extending the deadline for the closure of resolution process.

The final decision will be taken in the next meeting, sources added.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had on November 29 last year superseded the board of Reliance Capital Ltd (RCL) in view of payment defaults and serious governance issues.

The RBI appointed Nageswara Rao Y as the administrator in relation to the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) of the company.

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

RBI subsequently filed an application for initiation of CIRP against the company at the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

In February this year, the RBI-appointed administrator had invited expressions of interest (EoIs) for sale of Reliance Capital.

In September, RCL in its annual general meeting had informed shareholders that the company's consolidated debt was Rs 40,000 crore. It had reported narrowing of its consolidated net loss to Rs 1,759 crore in the quarter ended December 2021.

The company had posted a net loss of Rs 3,966 crore in the same quarter a year ago. However, net loss widened from Rs 1,156 crore in the preceding quarter ended September 2021.

Total income of the company stood at Rs 4,083 crore in Q3FY22, down from Rs 4,890 crore in Q3FY21.

RCL was incorporated on March 5, 1986, and is registered as Non-Banking Financial Company-Core Investment Company-Non-Deposit Taking-Systemically Important (NBFC-CIC-ND-SI) under the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.