Ruchi Soya's lenders to meet today to consider highest bidder Adani Wilmar's Rs 6,000 cr bid

New Delhi: Lenders of bankruptcy-bound Ruchi Soya are scheduled to meet today (1 August 2018) to consider an offer submitted by Adani Wilmar, which emerged as the highest bidder with Rs 6,000 crore bid to acquire Indore-based edible oil firm, sources said. Adani Wilmar, which sells cooking oil under the Fortune brand, and Baba Ramdev-led Patanjali are in the fray to acquire debt-ridden Ruchi Soya. Adani has emerged as the highest bidder (H1) with an offer of about Rs 6,000 crore, while Patanjali’s bid was worth around Rs 5,700 crore. Sources said the Committee of Creditors (CoC) will meet on Wednesday and consider Adani bids as Patanjali did not revise its offer under the Swiss Challenge system. After Adani Wilmar emerged as H1, Patanjali Ayurved sought clarification from the RP (resolution professional) of Ruchi Soya related to eligibility of Adani Group to participate in the bidding process. It also sought to know the parameters adopted by the RP to declare Adani Wilmar as the highest bidder. When contacted, a Patanjali spokesperson said the company has not yet got reply to its clarifications. [caption id=“attachment_4378787” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Gautam Adani, Reuters.[/caption] Last month, Patanjali Ayurved Managing Director Acharya Balkrishna had said that it will not back out from the race to acquire Ruchi Soya and explore all options, including legal, to clinch the deal. The Haridwar-based firm has questioned the appointment of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas as the RP’s legal advisor as the said law firm was already advising Adani Group. Patanjali was asked to submit a revised bid by June 16 to match or better the highest offer of Rs 6,000 crore by Adani Wilmar under the Swiss Challenge system adopted by the RP and the committee of creditors. However, Patanjali wrote to the RP seeking clarifications instead of submitting a fresh bid. Patanjali Ayurved already has a tie-up with the Indore-based Ruchi Soya for edible oil refining and packaging and it wants to further expand its cooking oil business. Ruchi Soya, which is facing insolvency proceedings, has a total debt of about Rs 12,000 crore. The company has many manufacturing plants and its leading brands include Nutrela, Mahakosh, Sunrich, Ruchi Star and Ruchi Gold. In December 2017, Ruchi Soya Industries entered into the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) and Shailendra Ajmera was appointed as the RP. The appointment was made by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on the application of the creditors Standard Chartered Bank and DBS Bank, under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).