DHFL bidders jack up offers; Oaktree’s highest at ₹33,000 cr

Lenders to the troubled Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL) have received revised offers from its four bidders, with the highest tender now at ₹33,000 crore.

According to informed sources, US-based Oaktree Capital has revised its bid to ₹33,000 crore from ₹28,000 crore earlier for the entire company on an ‘as is where is’ basis. Under its earlier bid, it had offered lenders ₹15,800 crore for the entire company, payable after seven years. It also offered the ₹12,000 crore of cash available with the company to the lenders.

Piramal Capital and Housing, which has bid for DHFL’s retail portfolio, increased its offer to around ₹26,000 crore. Adani Group has revised its bid to about ₹3,000 crore from the earlier ₹2,250 crore for DHFL’s wholesale and Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) asset portfolio. Hong Kong-based SC Lowy raised its offer to ₹2,300 crore for the non-SRA book of DHFL from the previous offer of ₹1,550 crore.

“Oaktree’s continues to be the highest bid for DHFL,” said the sources. “But even with the revised bids, lenders are staring at a huge haircut.” The total write-off for lenders could still be at least ₹50,000 crore with the company’s total liabilities estimated at ₹85,000 crore.

CoC meeting next week

DHFL’s Committee of Creditors (CoC) is expected to meet around November 17.

The revised bids came after the lenders expressed dissatisfaction over the earlier offers and the haircut that they would have had to take. The CoC, at its meeting on October 26, had asked the bidders to improve their offers.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had last month allowed a 90-day extension for the resolution process, until January 5.

Last November, DHFL became the first financial sector company to be taken into the corporate insolvency process in India. The pandemic and lockdown disrupted the process and the deadline for the submission of bids were put off a number of times.