The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the order by National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on another round of auction for the debt-ridden Reliance Capital undergoing an insolvency process.
The Torrent Group had filed a plea before the Supreme Court (SC) for an urgent hearing, as the Committee of Creditors (CoC) for the insolvent Reliance Capital Ltd was scheduled to hold the second round of bidding on that date.
In the RCap issue, Torrent Investments had emerged as the highest bidder with a resolution plan of ₹8,640 crore.
However, the CoC of Reliance Capital decided to conduct a second challenge mechanism and then Hinduja Group firm Indusind International Holdings Ltd (IIHL) put a revised bid.
This was challenged by Torrent Investments before the Mumbai bench of NCLT.
Earlier on 2 February, the NCLT said the challenge mechanism for financial bids stood concluded as on 21 December last year, with the bid of Torrent Investments at ₹8,640 crore being the highest.
Torrent Investments had filed a plea on 9 January, requesting the tribunal to quash the lenders’ plan to hold a fresh auction for takeover of Reliance Capital. Then, IIHL also filed a petition challenging the NCLT order.
Torrent Investments was the highest bidder offering ₹8,640 crore in the last round of the ” challenge mechanism”.
IIHL has also challenged the NCLT order before the appellate tribunal.
Torrent challenged the IIHL bid in the NCLT, though the company itself revised its own bid of ₹8,640 crore by offering the entire amount in cash upfront as against ₹3,750 crore offered in the auction.
Corporate insolvency was initiated against Reliance Capital in November 2021 to recover about ₹40,000 crore of unpaid loans.
An initial bid tender was issued on April 26, 2022, and four applicants — Torrent Investments, IIHL, Cosmea Financial-Piramal Group and Oaktree Capital — submitted their bids.
The CoC opined that the bid values that have been received are not acceptable and a challenge mechanism process was initiated.
