Billionaire Ajay Piramal’s conglomerate won bidding for bankrupt Indian shadow lender Dewan Housing Finance Corp., advancing a keenly watched insolvency that’s been a test of the country’s bankruptcy system, Bloomberg News reported. A resolution plan for Dewan from Piramal Enterprises Ltd.’s own shadow bank, Piramal Capital & Housing Finance Ltd., was approved by Dewan’s committee of creditors in a vote on Friday, according to a statement Sunday. People familiar with the matter had said Friday that Piramal received almost 94% of the votes while rival Oaktree Capital got less than half.
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India’s bankruptcy law faces a vital test as creditor banks vote on a winning bid for the first financial company to go through insolvency resolution, a process pitting US distressed-debt fund Oaktree Capital against India’s Piramal Group, the Financial Times reported. Real estate lender Dewan Housing Finance Corporation, known as DHFL, was the first financial group forced into insolvency in November 2019 after defaulting on about $12bn in debt.
The decision by India’s highest court on Tuesday to temporarily suspend the implementation of new farming laws at the center of huge protests appeared unlikely to end the weekslong showdown choking New Delhi, as protesting farmers declared the suspension a politically-motivated “trick” to ease the pressure on the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the New York Times reported.
India has proposed a pre-packaged insolvency option that will allow creditors and debtors to work on an informal plan and then submit it for approval even as the nation braces for a spike in bankruptcies once the freeze on filings is lifted, Bloomberg News reported. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has invited comments on the proposal that, if accepted, will become part of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, according to a statement. A sub-committee that suggested the option has recommended to quickly amend the code, preferably by an ordinance, to implement it.
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India’s key money-market rates and yields on short-term debt are set to rise after the central bank took its first small step to unwind emergency pandemic measures, Bloomberg News reported. The Reserve Bank of India will aim to drain 2 trillion rupees ($27.3 billion) of banking funds via a 14-day reverse repo operation on Jan. 15, the central bank said in a statement late Friday. This is the first move in a phased normalization of the central bank’s liquidity operations, it said.
Adani, Tata, Brookfield and JSPL have said they won’t submit financial bids for KSK Mahanadi Power’s ultra-mega power plant unless its water and railway infrastructure are included in the sale, according to people aware of the matter, creating a hurdle in the company’s insolvency process, the Economic Times (India) reported. The four bidders were among seven applicants that had expressed interest in acquiring the power company that owns a 3,600 MW thermal power plant in Chhattisgarh.
Digital services taxes adopted by India, Italy and Turkey discriminate against U.S. companies and are inconsistent with international tax principles, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office said on Wednesday, paving the way for potential retaliatory tariffs, Reuters reported.
Indian courts may rule in coming months on cases involving billions of dollars in distressed assets, and the decisions could clarify what roles banks play in helping companies devastated by the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. What may be among the first of the verdicts could also be one of the most important: the Supreme Court may decide within weeks on requests by big borrowers seeking relief on repayments and defaults, in what’s being called the loan moratorium case.
Around a dozen large borrowers have applied for the RBI’s loan restructuring scheme for those affected by COVID stress. The deadline for corporates and invididuals to make an application under the RBI's resolution framework for COVID-related stress ended on December 31. For small businesses, there is a separate restructuring scheme that will be valid until March 2021. The Future Group, Shaporrji Pallonji Group and SpiceJet are among those who will apply for loan restructuring.
The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India has adapted itself to the new environment in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and will strive to provide a "malleable regulatory framework" within the confines of the insolvency law, according to its Chairperson MS Sahoo, BloombergQuint reported. A key institution in implementing the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, the IBBI has moved to the electronic mode for most of its engagements with stakeholders and has recalibrated important regulations amid the pandemic.