The bidding war for Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL) continues, with Piramal Capital and Housing Finance improving its offer and emerging as the frontrunner.
Piramal raised its total offer for DHFL to Rs 38,250 crore on December 24, higher than Oaktree's offer of Rs 36,400 crore, according to a Mint report.
Moneycontrol could not independently verify the story.
Spokespersons for Piramal and Oaktree declined to comment when contacted by Mint.
According to evaluation metrics set by the investment banker and DHFL's committee of creditors (CoC), Piramal and Oaktree scored 15 points on qualitative parameters. However, on the quantitative metric, Piramal scored higher (76) than Oaktree (70).
"This is because of two factors—one, Piramal’s upfront payment to creditors and the equity infusion offer into DHFL are much higher than Oaktree. Second is Piramal’s offer for an outright buyout of the insurance business, which will immediately go to creditors. This commitment has an element of certainty, which Oaktree’s commitment does not have," a source told the paper.
The CoC found Piramal Group's total score to be 91 points on a scale of 100, while Oaktree scored 85 points, the source said.
According to the Mint report, Oaktree wrote a letter to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and DHFL's lenders on December 27, stating that the merged entity of Piramal Capital and DHFL could face imminent stress.
A spokesperson for Piramal responded to the letter, saying that "imaginary conspiracy theories do not alter obvious facts. The fact is all the bidders had the opportunity to submit bids post clarifications on 22 Dec. After seeing our bid, and recognising that their bid falls short on various dimensions, Oaktree is now sending this series of letters, to alter the substantive submissions they themselves have formally made."
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