Centrum Capital Limited (BSE:501150) is exploring the option of placing a formal bid for the troubled Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative Bank Limited (PMC) next week, after submitting an expression of interest (EoI) along with Resilient Innovations Private Limited (BharatPe) in December. Centrum Chairman Jaspal Bindra told Mint that the group is studying the challenges and capital requirements if it were to make a formal bid. "We are not anywhere close to getting the bank. It's a long shot. It was an opportunity worth considering. We are studying it as we speak. We have to make an offer in a few days. There are two or three issues. The Cooperative Act has issues of its own. One has to understand and deal with that. Then there is the challenge in the financials of the bank. Then there is the long extended moratorium, which has created huge amount of angst in deposit holders," he said. Besides the BharatPe-Centrum combine, three other groups have also submitted EoIs to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for acquiring PMC. One of these is steel baron Sanjeev Gupta's Liberty House Group. The names of the other entities are not known yet. Bindra said the Company was looking to scale its lending business, but availability of liquidity constrained its ability to expand. Centrum Financial Services availed the RBI's three-month moratorium on debt repayments.