After locking horns in several sectors, Reliance Industries and Adani Group, two of India’s biggest business groups are competing for a distressed coal-based power project. Both RIL and Adani Power have submitted binding bids to acquire the distressed thermal power plan Lanco Amarkantak.

Power Finance Corporation in partnership with REC Ltd, both state-owned power companies, have also placed bids for the project, according to a report in Economic Times.

RIL is believed to have made the most lucrative bid, offering Rs 1960 crore for the project. Also, RIL would pay the money upfront to lenders, the report added. This would be RIL’s foray into coal-based power production if the company’s bid is selected.

Adani’s Power offered Rs 1800 crore for the project in the form of bonds at 8% interest payable over 5 years, the report added.

The PFC-REC duo has offered Rs 3,400 crore payable over Rs 20 years and 40% equity to lenders.

The distressed power project already has claims worth Rs 14,632 crore from 17 lenders; out of this, PFC and REC’s share account for 42% of the admitted claims.

The sale process was initiated by the resolution professional (RP) after the lenders rejected a bid by Vedanta Ltd which offered Rs 3,000 crore to lenders including Rs 2150 crore in the form of bonds payable over 7 years and the remaining in cash.

The RP received 11 expression of interest (EOIs) after restarting the process.

According to an earlier ET report, RIL, Adani Power, Jindal Power Ltd, Twin Star Technologies, Vedanta, Oaktree Capital and a consortium of PFC, RFC submitted EOIs for the project.

Lanco Amarkantak Power has cash and cash equivalents of Rs 1,300 crore