MUMBAI: Lenders to Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL) are set to elect the new owner of the bankrupt home financier on January 14-15, after a three-week long voting process that will likely begin this weekend, people involved in the process said.
After two days of marathon meetings that ended on Friday evening, the lenders decided to put the proposals up for voting.
“We have discussed and analysed every possible angle attached to the bids. Now, it is up for voting,†said a banker involved in the process. The formal electronic voting will start in a day or two with the Reserve Bank of India-appointed administrator setting up the system, the banker added.
There are five proposals for which lenders, depositors and bondholders will vote for. Oaktree Capital and Piramal and Adani groups have bid to own the whole company. Piramal has also separately bid to acquire the retail loan assets of the company, while Hong Kong-based SC Lowy and Adani have made offers to buy the wholesale and slum rehabilitation loans of the mortgage lender.
Bondholders that include banks are estimated to have a 46% share in voting with depositors holding 7%. Deutsche Bank, Hong Kong-based Arrkkan Capital and Singapore’s SSG Capital are said to be among foreign investors in DHFL bonds. Lenders have an about 47% voting share.
RBSA Advisors on Friday made a presentation on different valuation of loan assets. The fair value of the company is estimated to be about Rs 41,000 crore and the liquidation value is pegged at about Rs 26,500 crore.
In between, lenders replied to DHFL’s erstwhile promoter Kapil Wadhawan, who offered to repay lenders sitting in jail. Lenders denounced his offer as “optics and gimmickâ€. The RBI-appointed administrator said it would consider such an offer provided 90% of the lenders agree.
Lenders also need to ask the RBI to withdraw the bankruptcy proceedings of DHFL for the same, said a person dealing with the matter.
Earlier, lenders sought certain clarification from the bidders.
The Piramal Group and Oaktree Capital on Thursday indicated that their respective offers would ultimately ensure higher recoveries than estimated earlier for the lenders.
US-based Oaktree has promised an additional Rs 1,700 crore of interest income that is expected to accrue in the period beginning from the approval of the resolution plan to its effective date.
After adding this amount, the net present value of the Oaktree offer for lenders is pegged at Rs 36,410 crore, compared with around Rs 35,000 crore offered by the Piramal Group.
The Piramal Group told the lenders that the value of DHFL’s insurance company would be higher than earlier estimates.
