The voting, which started on Monday, ended on Tuesday afternoon. The auction may be conducted on 16 January.
“Bids from the first round are also valid. Bidders can either offer the old bid or increase the bid," a banker, one of the two people cited above, said on condition of anonymity.
The decision also offers other initial bidders, including the Cosmea-Piramal consortium and Oaktree Capital, a new chance to revise bids. However, lenders said both these bidders, who had exited the race in the first round itself, are unlikely to bid higher.
On Monday, Torrent Investments moved the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) seeking a stay on the voting process for the second round; however, the court denied interim relief to Torrent.
At the heart of the dispute is the bid submitted by the Hinduja Group 24 hours after the auction deadline, which was higher than the top offer made within the stipulated time by Torrent.
In the first round, which concluded on 21 December, Torrent submitted the highest bid of ₹8,640 crore, followed by Hinduja Group with ₹8,110 crore. A day after the e-auction, Hindujas revised their bid to ₹9,000 crore from ₹8,110 crore. The Hindujas, who had come in second during the auction process, offered ₹8,800 crore upfront.
Torrent moved NLCT against this, asking the lenders to keep Hindujas’ post-auction offer on hold till the final hearing.
Last Friday, Torrent offered the entire bid amount of ₹8,640 crore as upfront cash, citing differences over the net present value as pointed out by the advisors Deloitte and KPMG.
Even after submitting the revised bids, Torrent and Hinduja Group’s bids are far below the liquidation value fixed by the independent valuers.
According to estimates submitted by valuers, Duff and Phelps arrived at a liquidation value of ₹12,500 crore, while RBSA pegged it at ₹13,200 crore.
