The Committee of Creditors at DHFL is likely to extend the deadline for debt resolution by a month to February of next year to factor in and evaluate the latest round of bids that might be radically different from those made in the past.
Lenders met on Tuesday to discuss the extension proposal that would soon be put to vote, three people with knowledge of the matter told ET.
The proposal will be submitted to Mumbai’s National Company Law Tribunal citing growing complexities of competitive bids and a lawsuit by National Housing Bank, sources said.
“We have lost time due to Covid and extensions to the bidding deadlines. It will be put to vote in the next three to four days,” said a senior executive involved in the exercise.
Under normal circumstances, the debt resolution was supposed to be completed early next year.
“We want to extend the timeline to be within regulations and to deal with the likely delays due to litigation. We want to complete the process with some days in hand,” said the person.
The administrator at (DHFL already sent formal letters to the four existing bidders of the troubled mortgage financier, seeking revised purchase offers for the fourth time. Potential buyers need to respond by December 14.
Lenders to DHFL expect the Adani group and Oaktree Capital to submit new offers. The Piramal Group, one of the four that remained until round three, is yet to firm up its mind on the type of bid to be made, ET reported on December 7. Lenders expect the fourth round of bids to lift the offer price by about 5-10%.
Some of the bidders apparently questioned the rationale behind seeking bids for the fourth time after having sought a “final round” of bids earlier, said an executive aware of the developments.
In the fourth round of bids, potential buyers can bid for any of the four categories – the whole company, retail assets, wholesale loans and slum rehabilitation projects.
