The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Monday rejected a plea by Torrent Investments—one of the bidders for the Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Capital—that sought to halt the Committee of Creditors’ voting to hold a second round of auction.  

     

The NCLT, comprising justice PN Deshmukh and Shyam Babu Gautam, declined to grant a stay on Torrent Investments’ plea, seeking to stop the Reliance Capital CoC’s voting on the second round of auction.

    

The tribunal has kept the matter for hearing on January 12.

    

IndusInd International Holdings (Hinduja), represented by Harish Salve and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, also pleaded to be a party in the matter.

    

Ravi Kadam represented the administrator, while Vikram Nankani appeared for the Torrent Group.

    

Torrent Investments and Hinduja Group company IndusInd International Holdings are in the fray for Reliance Capital. 

    

The Hinduja Group entity submitted its bid 24 hours after the auction deadline, which was higher than the top offer made within the stipulated time by Torrent Investments.

    

The CoC, represented by Kapil Sibal, and IIHL will be made parties to the matter, the tribunal said.

    

The voting started on Monday and will end on Tuesday. 

    

Lenders proposed a second round of auction to get better offers, which are above liquidation value. 

    

According to reports, lenders had proposed to hold a second round of auction with a minimum threshold price of Rs 9,500 crore on a net present value (NPV) basis, which would include Rs 8,000 crore as an upfront cash payment.

    

So far, all offers for Reliance Capital have been below the Rs 12,500-13,000 crore liquidation value.

    

In the first round of the auction that ended on December 21, Torrent Investments gave the highest offer of Rs 8,640 crore based on NPV – arrived at after discounting future cash flows. 

    

Hinduja had offered Rs 8,110 crore on an NPV basis, while Piramal Enterprises – Cosmea Financial Holdings team did not participate in the auction.