The $12.8 billion bankruptcy of shadow lender Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. is starting to offer a glimmer of hope. It’s about time. Unexpected defaults by the financier, owner and operator of Indian infrastructure assets have caused a liquidity squeeze, which has brought strained relations between the government and the central bank to breaking point, a Bloomberg View reported.
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China’s domestic investors are more bearish than their overseas counterparts because confusing policy signals have convinced them the government is favoring state enterprises over private companies, Bloomberg News reported. That’s according to a Citigroup Inc. report from Oct. 31 which says entrepreneurs see government policies "turning left" in favor of state enterprises even as officials profess to "turn right" in support of private companies and further reform and opening up.
Turkey could use a so-called bad bank to provide relief to lenders hurt by the soaring number of bankruptcies and restructurings, according to a Houlihan Lokey executive, Bloomberg News reported. “It allows liquidity to flow back to the banks and allows banks to raise capital,” Joseph Julian, the advisory firm’s managing director and co-head of the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, said in an interview in Istanbul.
The new board of India’s Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) submitted a plan to revive the debt-laden firm to a company law tribunal on Wednesday, paving the way to a potential resolution of the group’s future, Reuters reported. The Indian government this month took control of IL&FS, a major infrastructure financing and development company, after it defaulted on some of its debt, triggering fears of contagion across India’s financial system.
Jet Airways Ltd said on Wednesday it has received notices on payment delays from a few aircraft lessors, adding to the debt-laden airline’s woes, Reuters reported. Profits of airlines in the world’s fastest-growing aviation market have been dented with the surge in crude oil prices and a depreciating rupee. Jet has been struggling to keep itself afloat and it had said in August that it will inject funds and cut costs to turn around the business. Jet said in a statement on Wednesday that it had got notices for payment delays/defaults from few aircraft lessors, but did not elaborate further.
China’s HNA Group is looking to sell one of its prized regional airlines to a state-owned competitor, as debt woes threaten the core operations of the indebted airline-to-finance conglomerate, the Financial Times reported. The sale would mark the first formal divestment of a core domestic aviation business, a step HNA executives had vowed the group would not take but highlights the challenge of handling debts of at least $78bn accumulated during its rapid expansion.
India is examining options including an outright sale of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd., a person with knowledge of the matter said, as the government tries to stem defaults at the lender with $12.6 billion of debt, Bloomberg News reported. A plan to be presented to a bankruptcy court Wednesday by the state-appointed board of the lender includes selling the entire stake to a financially strong investor and ensure business continuity, the person said, asking not to be identified as the matter is private.
Those who are awash in cash lack capital. Those who have adequate capital are thirsty for liquidity, Bloomberg News reported. That, in a nutshell, is the story of India’s financial crunch, and the surest way to ease it will require tapping Indians living overseas. In the past, New Delhi has resorted to such special hard-currency deposit programs to tide over balance-of-payment difficulties. A notable instance was in 1998, after India invited U.S. sanctions by testing a nuclear weapon.
Indian lenders are being punished for their exposure to a shadow lender as the government fails to make good on its promise to halt defaults by the distressed financier, Bloomberg News reported. IndusInd Bank Ltd. has lost more than $1.9 billion of market value since it announced quarterly earnings as net income growth missed expectations and provisions for doubtful loans shot up. Investors also penalized the lender for not detailing all its loans to Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd. L&T Finance Holdings Ltd.