The competition to purchase Reliance Capital (RCap) in bankruptcy has attracted five bidders. There have been no individual bids for Reliance's ownership of the life and general insurance companies, which make up 90% of the group value, and all of the bids are at the holding company level.
According to sources, the bidders include the Hinduja Group - the only new-generation bank without a group insurance company. The others are Ahmedabad-based Torrent Group, Oaktree, Piramal & Cosmea Financial combine, and UV Asset Reconstruction Group.
Piramal and Cosmea have submitted "several" bids for the company because Piramal is only interested in Reliance General Insurance and Cosmea will buy the remaining companies. Each party is liable for their respective obligations under a two-party several liability bid.
Among the companies that had put in an expression of interest, Zurich Group and Advent, which were keen on Reliance General earlier, have not put in a bid. Aditya Birla Sun Life has also stayed away.
IndusInd Bank is sponsored by The Hinduja Group, and Oaktree, a private equity firm, competed against Piramal for DHFL but came up short. Sam Ghosh, a former Allianz executive who oversaw the Bajaj Allianz joint venture before being chosen by Anil Ambani to run Reliance Capital, is the CEO of Cosmea Financial. Five years ago, Ghosh left Reliance Capital.
