DHFL committee of creditors puts voting on hold till December 3

The committee of creditors (CoC) of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL) has put the voting process on hold till December 3, after the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) stayed proceedings. The court has stayed the resolution proceedings on a petition filed by National Housing Bank (NHB), claiming priority over other creditors of the non-banking finance company.

In a CoC meeting held on November 17, lenders discussed opposition by the bidders including Piramal group on a last minute bid by Adani for acquiring all the assets of DHFL. Lenders did not open bids from the four suitors in the latest round of bidding as per court direction. The CoC had fixed November 17 as a deadline for third round of bidding for the suitors.

Before the third round, the Adani group had offered to buy all the loan assets of the mortgage lender for Rs 31,250 crore on November 13, as per sources. This was a deviation from the original proposal of Adani group to bid only for the wholesale assets of DHFL in the second round of bidding.

According to sources, Oaktree Capital, Piramal group and SC Lowy have opposed Adani’s last minute move to bid for the whole company. The bidders also threatened to withdraw from the resolution process, if the CoC were to accept Adani’s Rs 31,250 crore bid, as per sources.

Piramal Enterprises had sent a letter to the CoC as a “formal protest against submission of an unsolicited offer made by one of the resolution applicants,” according to the contents of the letter reviewed by FE. The mortgage lender had given applicants the option to bid for the whole company or in parts. DHFL had earlier shortlisted 22 applicants for the company, which was further narrowed down to four suitors.

While Oaktree Capital had submitted a bid of Rs 31,000 crore for all the assets of the company, the other three bidders including Adani group had submitted their bids for acquiring the company in parts on November 9. This was the second round of bidding after CoC had asked bidders to improve their offers. The Adani group had offered Rs 2,700 crore for the wholesale book and Rs 50 crore for the slum redevelopment authority (SRA) book in the second round of bidding.

Similarly, Piramal group had offered Rs 26,000 crore for the retail book of the company. The fourth suitor, SC Lowy, had offered Rs 2,250 crore for the wholesale book on November 9. The admitted claims of financial creditors from DHFL stood at Rs 87,120 crore as on September 10.

State Bank of India is the lead creditor with a claim of Rs 10,083 crore, followed by Bank of India, which has claimed Rs 4,126 crore. Canara Bank has claimed Rs 2,682 crore and National Housing Bank (NHB) has claimed Rs 2,434 crore from DHFL, among other lenders. DHFL has been undergoing insolvency proceedings at the NCLT in Mumbai since December 3, 2019.