Mumbai: As Patanjali Ayurved has shown no interest in improving its bid to take over the bankrupt company, Ruchi Soya, the probability of Adani Wilmar has increased to emerge as the victorious bidder.
As per the information given by the sources, Yog Guru Baba Ramdev promoted Patanjali Ayurved has decided not to improve upon its offer for the bankrupt company due to which Adani Wilmar is all set to emerge victorious in the bidding.
It was told by the source that Patanjali did not give any reasons to lenders for not improving upon its bid. Lenders will meet next week and, in all probability, Adani Wilmar will be declared the highest bidder. Negotiations will then be held on the contours of the deal.
A JV between infrastructure conglomerate founded by Gautam Adani and Singapore’s Wilmar, Adani Wilmar, offered Rs. 5,474 crore out of which Rs. 4,300 crore will be paid to the lenders, while Patanjali had offered Rs. 5,765 crore out of which Rs. 4,065 crore was to be paid to lenders.
Since the settlement of loans has a higher weightage than the infusion of funds to run the company according to the evaluation matrix, the Adani Wilmar was considered to be the highest bidder. It was after that, the lenders decided to give both the bidders a chance to improve their bids. Apart from this, the highest bidder, Adani Wilmar, was given another chance to raise its bid before the second-highest bidder made a counteroffer.
Patanjali was given time till Saturday morning to improve the bid offer made by Adani Wilmar. If Patanjali would have improved it, Adani Wilmar would have been given more time until Monday morning to improve on Patanjali’s bid. Since Patanjali didn’t improve its bid offer; things couldn’t go as per the original plan.
The Mumbai-based edible oil producer, Ruchi Soya, was identified by the Reserve Bank of India to be referred to the bankruptcy courts for effective debt resolution. A claim of Rs. 10,493 crore was submitted by the Financial Creditors to the resolution professions of the company, whereas a claim of Rs 36 crore was made by operational creditors.
Among the financial creditors, State Bank of India had exposure of Rs. 1,822 crore (which was the highest), followed by Central Bank of India of Rs. 824 crore, Standard Chartered of Rs. 607 crore and DBS of Rs. 242 crore.
Last week, ANZ Bank had approached the Mumbai bench of the bankruptcy court seeking to include its claim among the list of financial creditors. ANZ Bank had given a loan of $50 million to Avanti Industries to finance the supply of goods to Ruchi Soya.
Bidders, lenders and the resolution professional have until September 12 to put in place a resolution plan for the company, failing which it could go into liquidation.
