Global investors, local rivals place 60 bids for RCap assets

In a relief to creditors, over 60 bids, including from global investors Oaktree Capital, Blackstone and KKR, are understood to have been submitted for whole, and various subsidiaries, of Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Capital (RCap).

As many as eight entities, including Oaktree, JC Flower and a few asset reconstruction companies (ARCs), have put in bids for all of RCap assets on an as-is-where-is basis, according to banking sources. Neither the details of the offers nor the bid amounts by these entities could be ascertained.

For Reliance General Insurance, 18 bids have been submitted including from Chryscap, JC Flower, Blackstone, KKR, CVC Capital Partners and Bain Capital.

Sixteen bids have come in for its life insurance subsidiary — Reliance Nippon Life Insurance — from players including Bain Capital, NIIF, Arpwood Partners, Dabur Investments, Bandhan Bank and Multiples Asset Management.

Reliance Capital holds 100 per cent stake in Reliance General Insurance and 51 per cent in Reliance Nippon Life Insurance.

Eight entities, including Bain Capital, Religare Broking, Edelweiss Securities and certain ARCs, submitted bids for Reliance Securities. Six players have bid for Reliance ARC including Bain Capital, International Asset Reconstruction Company and other ARCs.

There are also eight bidders for Reliance Health and a number of bids have been submitted for Reliance Capital’s stake in the Indian Commodity Exchange (ICEX) and Paytm E-Commerce business, sources said.

The deadline for submission of bids was December 1.

Toward debt-free status

RCap had, on October 31, invited Expressions of Interest (EoI) for selling stakes in its subsidiaries as part of the process to pay its dues to creditors and become debt free.

The company, part of the debt-laden Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group, has been facing headwinds for over a year now and has defaulted on payments to investors — the latest being interest payments on term loans amounting to ₹624.61 crore from HDFC and Axis Bank in November. Its total financial indebtedness, including short- and long-term debt, amounts to ₹20,077.14 crore including accrued interest up to October 31, 2020, it had said in a recent regulatory filing.

The monetisation process is not being done under IBC rules but under the aegis of the Committee of Debenture Holders and the Debenture Trustee Vistra, which represents 93 per cent of the total outstanding debt of the company. SBI Capital Markets and JM Financial Services are the advisors to the lenders.

RCap posted a consolidated net loss of ₹2,577 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2020.

Separately, it is also working with the lenders for the resolution of Reliance Home Finance and Reliance Commercial Finance.

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