Aditya Birla Capital has shown interest in bidding for Reliance Nippon Life Insurance under the insolvency proceedings of Reliance Capital Ltd, sources told businessline.
“They (Aditya Birla Group) have approached and made a representation. It is still under consideration by the CoC (committee of creditors),” said a person with knowledge of the matter.
During the period of submission of initial or non-bidding bids—which ended on August 29—the CoC received 14 bids for Reliance Capital. Reliance Nippon Life Insurance was the only entity in the group to not receive individual bids.
Aditya Birla Capital has approached the CoC citing a provision under the IBC Code which in certain cases allows for bids post the deadline for submission of non-binding bids.
This includes cases where there are no particular bidders for a specific asset, sources said, adding that this is being examined by the CoC.
Reliance Nippon Life Insurance is a 51:49 joint venture between Reliance Capital and Japan’s Nippon Life Insurance.
Aditya Birla Capital did not respond to queries till the time of going to press.
Reliance Capital Insolvency
The non-binding bids received included six bids at the group level from Torrent Capital, IndusInd Group, Oaktree Capital, Cosmea Financial, Authum Investment, and B Right Group, and three bids for Reliance General Insurance from Piramal Finance, Zurich Re, and Advent International. It was later reported that Piramal Finance and Zurich Re might also consider submitting a joint bid for the general insurance.
Reliance Capital also received prospective bids from Jindal Steel and Power and UV Asset Reconstruction Company for its asset reconstruction business and from Choice Equity, Global Fincap, and Geand Bhawan for Reliance Securities and other assets.
The last date for submission of binding bids by these entities was extended to October 31, after they sought more time to complete the due diligence process.
The administrator of Reliance Capital, Nageswara Rao Y, has reportedly approached the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to seek an extension to the November 1 deadline for completion of the insolvency process.
The NLCT is likely to make a decision regarding the same by next week, as per industry sources.
(With inputs from Hamsini Karthik)