A public-relations firm became the latest company to ask an Indian tribunal to place billionaire Anil Ambani-run Reliance Communications Ltd. under insolvency proceedings after the unprofitable mobile-phone operator failed to pay its dues, Bloomberg News reported. Fortuna Public Relations Pvt. placed its request with the Mumbai bench of National Company Law Tribunal on Monday, saying Reliance Communications owes it 4.3 million rupees ($67,000). The NCLT plans to hear the case on Dec. 19.
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Executives from Chinese companies specialising in offering consumers small, easy-to-get loans became something of a fixture on Wall Street this year, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Led by companies such as Qudian Inc and PPDAI Group Inc, the Chinese micro-lenders raised $1.2 billion with splashy U.S. listings, cashing in on a boom in borrowing by consumers in China with little access to traditional banks.
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Nissan Motor Co. is seeking compensation from India, saying the government failed to keep its end of the bargain on promised tax breaks after wooing the Japanese automaker to set up a factory in the South Asian country, Bloomberg News reported. The Yokohama-based carmaker has started international arbitration against the Indian government, a Nissan spokesman said Friday. The company wants $770 million in payments and damages, Reuters reported Friday, citing a person familiar with the matter.
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An Indian overseeing committee has approved a proposal submitted by a group of lenders, led by State Bank of India, to restructure an 82.85 billion rupees ($1.3 billion) debt of Bajaj Hindusthan Sugar Ltd, Bloomberg News reported. As per the plan, the company’s debt of 47.89 billion rupees will be considered as “sustainable”, while the rest will be treated as “unsustainable”, India’s top sugar maker said in a statement to stock exchanges on Friday. A loan is considered as sustainable when a company is able to service it from its cash flow.
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Debt-laden Indian wireless carrier Reliance Communications (RCom) on Thursday said that a majority of its 31 creditor banks have decided to oppose China Development Bank’s (CDB) insolvency petition against the company, Reuters reported. After a meeting on Wednesday, the lenders have named Indian law firm J. Sagar Associates as their legal counsel to oppose the CDB petition, RCom said in a statement. CDB said it was unable to make immediate comment.
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Moves to sort out India’s $207 billion of bad loans may have eased one threat hanging over executives of state-owned banks: the danger they could be thrown in jail if a future generation of politicians in New Delhi decides they have sold off assets on the cheap. That’s because the new bankruptcy courts set up by the government to handle troubled companies create a transparent process for pricing the assets and writing down their loans, according to P K Gupta, a managing director of State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender, Bloomberg News reported.
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India’s Reliance Communications Ltd., which earlier this month defaulted on dollar notes, told bondholders that they would be treated the same as bank lenders in terms of their ability to recover funds, according to Citigroup Inc. The mobile phone operator controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani, whose failure to pay interest on the dollar notes comes as a high-profile test of India’s new bankruptcy laws, held the call Monday, Citigroup said in a note to clients dated Nov. 28.
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India Restores Faith in Capitalism

According to one of India’s most respected bankers, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity -- a mammoth sale of distressed assets, some $40 billion in the first round, Bloomberg News reported in a commentary. Much could go wrong, of course, especially given that so many powerful interests have so much money at stake in the process. Fortunately, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, which has stumbled in some of its biggest policy moves recently, appears to be handling this particular challenge with both agility and a sense of urgency.
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Shares in India’s Reliance Communications fell by as much as 9.4 per cent on Tuesday morning following reports that the troubled telecom group’s largest creditor, China Development Bank, has launched action against it under India’s new insolvency law, the Financial Times reported. In a statement on Monday evening, RCom – controlled by tycoon Anil Ambani – had denied any knowledge of the reported petition, which could force it into liquidation if it fails to satisfy creditor demands.
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China Huishan Dairy Holdings, burdened by billions of dollars worth of debt, said on Tuesday its creditors had filed a plea in a local court for bankruptcy restructuring against two if its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Reuters reported. The application was filed on Tuesday against Huishan Dairy China Co Ltd and Liaoning Huishan Dairy Group Shenyang Co Ltd by the embattled company’s onshore creditors, it said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange.
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