Now, Piramal likely to bid for entire DHFL portfolio

The battle for Dewan Housing and Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL) is set to intensify, with Piramal Capital and Housing Finance gearing to bid for the entire non-banking finance company. This could make it a three-way bidding war with the Adani Group and Oaktree Capital already expressing interest to acquire the whole book of debt-laden DHFL. Piramal had earlier offered to buy only the retail book of DHFL.

With the DHFL’s Committee of Creditors (CoC) seeking fresh bids from all four bidders, Piramal is expected to make a revised offer for the entire book, according to sources.

Piramal did not respond to an e-mail query by BusinessLine on the issue.

The CoC, which met earlier this week, has sought fresh bids from all the four suitors — Piramal, Adani Group, Oaktree Capital and SC Lowy — after Adanis submitted an unsolicited offer to acquire the entire portfolio after initially bidding for just the wholesale and the SRA project. “The decision has been informally conveyed but a formal letter seeking fresh bids will be sent today,” said an informed source, adding that the four can submit fresh bids for any category or the whole book of DHFL.

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“For the lenders, the prime objective is to ensure that they get better value for DHFL. A fresh round of bids will help in this while also taking care of the concerns of the other bidders,” the source said, adding that they will be given about two weeks to submit fresh resolution plans.

The bone of contention had turned out to be a revised bid by Adanis for over ₹31,000 crore for all the assets of DHFL as against its earlier bid of about ₹3,000 crore for just the wholesale and SRA book. Adani’s new offer is understood to be higher than even Oaktree’s. Piramal Enterprises, which had bid about ₹25,000 crore for DHFL’s retail portfolio, had lodged a protest against the Adani offer. The next meeting of the CoC is likely to take place after December 3 by when the order of the National Company Law Tribunal is expected.

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May take more time

Sources also did not rule out a likely extension in the resolution process for DHFL.

“There has not been much thought on this as of now, but given the various issues at play, an extension can not be ruled out,” they said. The NCLT had last month given a 90-day extension for the resolution process of DHFL until January 5, 2021.

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