India

A record jump in coronavirus cases in India is leading the nation’s bond traders to pare bets that the central bank will shift to a tighter policy stance as early as this year, Bloomberg News reported. Shorter-maturity rupee debt rallied, with yields on the 5.22% 2025 bond and the 5.15% 2025 debt sliding 12 basis points to 5.47% and 5.59%, respectively. The rally was also aided by a government borrowing plan for the new fiscal first half, with issuances tilted toward longer-end bonds.

India announced a fiscal first-half borrowing plan largely in line with expectations, a move likely to comfort a bond market facing near-record debt sales, Bloomberg News reported. The government will auction 7.24 trillion rupees ($99 billion) of bonds in the six months to September, or about 60% of the full-year target, Economic Affairs Secretary Tarun Bajaj said on Wednesday. That compares with 60% to 65% of total debt the government usually issues for the period.

Engineering and construction firm Punj Lloyd is heading towards liquidation as the company''s lenders have rejected a resolution plan, the Times of India reported. The company is undergoing resolution process under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). During its last meeting held on March 30, the lenders did not approve the resolution plan, the company said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday. The company's Committee of Creditors (CoC) failed to select a bidder for the company within the mandated time frame under the IBC.

Indian shares rose on Tuesday, lifted by gains in bank shares after steel conglomerate JSW Steel completed an insolvency process, allowing lenders to recover some of their bad loans, Reuters reported. JSW Steel said on Friday that it completed a resolution plan for Bhushan Steel and Power, including a payment of 193.50 billion rupees ($2.66 billion) to financial creditors. “The JSW Steel resolution has given impetus to the banks as many of them were lenders to the bankrupt company,” said Anita Gandhi, director at Arihant Capital Markets.

India allowed the resumption of bankruptcy filings, ending a year-old suspension created to protect firms from the impact of the virus pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. The law is in operation after an executive order halting bankruptcy proceedings expired on March 25, said the people, asking not to be identified as the matter is not public. The move follows a court ruling earlier this week that mandated banks to resume classifying bad debt, unwinding another pandemic-era measure.

Authorities in India believe that a new breed of lender, its technique sharpened in China, has been preying on working-class and rural people who have been devastated by the impact of the coronavirus on the Indian economy, the New York Times reported. These lenders don’t require credit scores or visits to a bank. But they charge high costs over a brief period. They also require access to a borrower’s phone, siphoning up contacts, photos, text messages, even battery percentage.

India’s government is considering resuming fresh bankruptcy filings after the current suspension expires on March 25, the Economic Times of India reported. The lifting of the halt would come even as a resurgence in virus cases threatens the nascent economic recovery. It could spark a wave of new insolvencies, pent up from last year when businesses were hurt by India’s first economic contraction in decades. India’s government is considering resuming fresh bankruptcy filings after the current suspension expires on March 25.

Prestige Estates Projects Ltd. will take over a Mumbai housing project from bankrupt Ariisto Developers Pvt. following a court decision on Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported. The Bengaluru-based developer plans to launch the first phase of the project by May and second phase toward the end of the year, Prestige’s Chief Executive Officer Venkat K. Narayana said by phone on Wednesday. He estimates revenues of more than 100 billion rupees ($1.4 billion) from the 7.5 million square feet under development. “This will be our largest project in Mumbai,” Narayana said.

India’s Supreme Court allowed lenders to resume classifying delinquent debt as bad loans, reversing a ruling that delayed disclosure of soured credit in an economy already saddled with stressed assets, Bloomberg News reported. A three-judge panel headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan delivered the verdict on Tuesday, supporting a request from the federal government and central bank, which had sought to overturn a September order that barred the categorization of loans as non-performing.