India

Insolvency appellate tribunal NCLAT on Friday directed Jet Airways' new owner -- Jalan-Kalrock consortium -- to pay the unpaid provident fund and gratuity dues of employees of the carrier, which is preparing to restart operations, the Times of India reported.

National Asset Reconstruction Company of India (NARCL), the government-promoted bad bank, has given lenders of Meenakshi Energy a Rs 900 crore binding offer to acquire its debt, said two people aware of the development, the Economic Times of India reported. The thermal power company promoted by Hemant Kanoria and his family entered corporate insolvency in November 2019.

Financial analysts said that the Reserve Bank of India’s currency intervention is making the rupee less attractive for carry traders, Bloomberg News reported.Its intervention in the spot and forward markets have helped pushed the 12-month implied yields on the rupee -- typically a reflection of interest rate differentials with the US -- to the lowest since 2011, eroding its appeal.

Indian edtech Byju’s said it has raised $250 million from existing investors led by the sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority, days after announcing job cuts in a bid to slash costs, Bloomberg News reported. The fundraising keeps Byju’s valuation of $22 billion and its status as India’s most valuable startup, with the bulk of the capital coming from the Qatar fund, a person familiar with the deal said on Monday, asking not to be named as those details are private.

The three countries that helped Moscow to maintain crude exports in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine appear to be stepping back into the market for Russian barrels, with Turkey taking a lead role in the latest buying, Bloomberg News reported. A marked increase in the volume of crude on tankers that have yet to signal a final destination makes the task of monitoring Russia’s exports more complicated, but most of those vessels end up in India, with a smaller number heading further east to China.

In a major reform in the insolvency process, the RBI has allowed asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) with Rs 1,000-crore net worth to bid for taking over a business undergoing insolvency, the Times of India reported. The RBI has also mandated new rules aimed at improving the governance and financial health of ARCs, which are companies that extract value from bad loans. Going by public disclosures, there are currently three ARCs with paid-up capital of over Rs 1,000 crore - Edelweiss, JM and ARCIL.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has dismissed a petition filed by around 368 homebuyers who had purchased properties from Lavasa Corporation, the Economic Times of India reported. The petition had alleged misconduct in the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) of the company and mistreatment of the homebuyers as a class of creditors.

Canara Bank has filed a fresh insolvency petition against Hyderabad-based engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company Gayatri Projects, increasing pressure on the debt-laden borrower that owes lenders more than ₹6,000 crore, the Economic Times of India reported. A failed restructuring plan first initiated in 2015 and subsequent default have marked the account as a non- performing asset in the books of banks.

India's central bank is unlikely to extend a Friday deadline for businesses to set up an additional layer of security for consumers' credit card data even after some concerns remain over payments failing and revenue losses, say bankers and merchants, Reuters reported. Despite a demand by smaller merchants to delay the compliance date, there has been no indication so far by the central bank that there is likely to be an extension in deadline, three banking and merchant sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The draft Indian telecom bill has cleared the air on spectrum ownership for companies undergoing insolvency proceedings and around regulating OTT communication services, analysts said, the Economic Times of India reported. They added that the draft telecom bill also offers a robust regulatory framework within the federal structure to obtain right of way (RoW) approvals in a uniform, non-discriminatory manner, for establishing telecoms infrastructure and expediting the rollout of 5G networks.