Mumbai: In an unexpected move, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and British Gas Plc on February 7 joined the race of buying the bankrupt Enron's stake in the troubled Dabhol Power Company (DPC), taking the final tally of domestic and international bidders to eight.

"Both Reliance and British Gas were the last moment contenders as they submitted their expression of interest (EOI) just before the 17:00 hours deadline today", a senior financial institution source said.

With the two new entrants, the companies which have emerged as potential bidders are Tata Power Company (TPC), BSES Ltd, Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL), and global energy giants Royal Dutch Shell, Totalfina Elf and Gaz de France.

He said TPC and BSES have already signed confidentiality agreement and would begun due diligence next week in London.

When contacted TPC managing director Adi Engineer and top Shell officials declined to comment on the matter saying that the matter was highly confidential, while BSES chairman and managing director R V Shahi confirmed signing the agreement.

"BSES signed the confidentiality agreement two days ago and we expect to commence due diligence by mid-next week. The process would be undertaken by in-house experts at the data room to be provided by DPC in London", Shahi said.

GAIL chairman and managing director Proshanto Banerji said the navratna company would sign the agreement next week.

Gaz de France, which has mandated a Navi Mumbai based firm Logicon Engineers Pvt Ltd to negotiate their interest, would sign the agreement early next week as it had suggested some altercations in it, the source said.

PTI