DHFL COC seeks to oust Oaktree from bidding race; rules changed again to favour Piramal

New Delhi/Mumbai, Jan 3 : Banking sources reveal that some of the members of the Committee of Creditors (CoC) with large exposure to DHFL, are seeking to oust Oaktree from the bidding race for DHFL assets.
Interestingly, Oaktree has emerged as H1 with the highest bid of Rs 38,400 crore.
However, at the instance of some of these lenders, the rules of the game are being changed again to favour Piramal Group.
The bid evaluation criteria has been altered wrongly whereby Oaktree bid value will unfairly be suppressed by Rs 2,700 crore.
The comparison and evaluation of bids circulated to the COC members for voting purposes had wrongfully removed Oaktree’s offers of Rs 1,700 crore towards interest income allocated to COC and Rs 1,000 crore towards insurance business, thus presenting Oaktree’s bid suppressed by about Rs 2,700 crore than what was offered by Oaktree.
This approach is being viewed in sharp contrast to the accommodative stance offered to Piramal’s out-of-turn increase in bid by Rs 1,700 crore, in contravention of the bidding norms. Piramal was allowed to increase Rs 700 crore towards insurance and Rs 1,000 crore allocated towards interest income post IBC.