Adani emerges strong contender for debt-laden DHFL: report
21 Nov 2019
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A day after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) superseded the board of debt-laden Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), a CNBC-TV18 report citing sources said Adani Group could be a strong contender to take over the non-banking finance company.
Other companies interested in acquiring DHFL included Apollo (i.e. AION) and Piramal were interested in the retail loan book of DHFL, Adani is the only buyer interested in the entire business, bankers have told CNBC-TV18.
The report said the Adani Group had shown interest in both the wholesale and the retail businesses even a few months back while Piramal and Apollo have only shown interest in the retail business.
Adani Capital's spokesperson declined to comment on CNBC-TV18's story.
SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar said he couldn't comment on specific contender names for DHFL but added that he expected many suitors.
While DHFL can now pay lenders, who have securitisation arrangements with it, fixed deposit (FD) holders, who are unsecured lenders, will still have to wait to receive their dues.
Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court has allowed a plea by banks led by State Bank of India and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), allowing DHFL to make payments to them.
This comes after the Bombay HC last month extended its September order restricting payments or disbursements by DHFL to third parties until further orders.
Justice A K Menon restrained DHFL from making further payments to secured and unsecured creditors, to which banks had sought modification.
Banks, including SBI, Union Bank, IDFC, Bank of Baroda, HDFC Bank, Canara Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and some financial institutions such as Aditya Birla Finance Ltd and Aditya Birla Housing Finance moved Bombay HC filing an intervention petition seeking to vacate that order.
Allowing their plea, Bombay HC has said DHFL can make payments to banks and NBFCs which have securitisation arrangements with it.
DHFL can now clear previous dues and make future payments that were due since the earlier Bombay HC order. DHFL owes these lenders Rs37,633 crore in securitised portfolios, as per a BloombergQuint report.
