RERA had offered ₹32.5 crore to NARCL’s top offer of ₹31 crore under a Swiss challenge organized by the lead lender. state Bank of India ,State Bank Of India) last month.
A person aware of the development said, “NARCL has informed the banks that it is ready to match the offer, which means the asset will be transferred to them.”
Under a Swiss challenge, the initial bidder has the option of matching or topping the competing bid. NARCL made a formal bid to take over SSA’s debt in mid-October. Lenders owed to the company’s leadership state Bank of India (SBI) Total ₹ 530 cr. SBI owes Rs 368 crore, Canara Bank ₹118 crore, and IDBI Bank ₹43 crore.
“The company is a relatively small account and the banking sector exposure is not that big. The difference between the initial NARCL bid and the new one is not much. But now this is the second such acquisition by NARCL, so in a way it is symbolic. is,” said a second person familiar with the transaction.
The bid of Rare ARC was marginally higher than the offer of NARCL while meeting the minimum incremental improvement criteria of 5%.
Last month, NARCL had refused to match Phoenix ARC Pvt Ltd’s bid of Rs 405 crore for bankrupt steelmaker Mittal Corp. But that offer was 78% higher than the anchor bid of NARCL.
NARCL’s counter offer comes even as banks await final government nod to take it up Jaypee Infratech loans for which it had submitted binding bids in September. In October, banks had agreed to sell Jaypee Infratech loans to NARCL after no competitive bids were received following an initial offer by the bad loan aggregator.