India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will meet commercial banks and shadow lenders on Thursday to review implementation of loan restructuring programs following Covid-19 related stress, Bloomberg News reported. The meeting comes days after a debt payment holiday offered by the Reserve Bank of India’s ends. The central bank has since relaxed bad loan classification rules by allowing lenders the power to restructure certain loans. Banks are struggling to accelerate credit growth and are confronting a mounting bad debt pile that’s set to swell to a two-decade high.
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The Finance Ministry has asked public sector banks to monitor cases where insolvency proceedings could be initiated against individuals who are guarantors of corporate debtors that have defaulted on loans, The Tribune reported. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) provides for a time-bound and market-linked resolution of stressed assets. The Code also provides for initiation of insolvency proceedings against personal guarantors of corporate debtors, even though the provision has not been used much by lenders to recover dues.
An Indian court on Thursday halted insolvency proceedings against Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani, the younger brother of India’s richest man, and barred him from disposing of any of his assets, Reuters reported. Anil Ambani, who runs a business group separate from his billionaire brother Mukesh Ambani, had filed a plea with the Delhi High Court challenging the appointment of a resolution professional over a roughly 12 billion rupee ($163 million)personal guarantee that he had given to the State Bank of India for loans to his companies.
State Bank of India (SBI), the lead creditor to Jain Irrigation Systems (JISL), is likely to consider a Rs 4,000-crore debt restructuring plan for the company next week, sources close to the development told FE. According to the restructuring plan, of the Rs 4,000-crore debt, Rs 2,800 crore will be converted into a sustainable portion, payable at 8.5% interest to lenders, The Financial Express reported. The remaining Rs 1,200- crore unsustainable debt will be converted into debentures, payable after eight years at 0.01% interest.
India’s central bank governor has warned that the state-dominated banking system will need to push ahead with an infusion of funds to withstand the country’s deepening coronavirus crisis, the Financial Times reported. Several of India’s largest and best-performing banks, including Kotak Mahindra, ICICI and State Bank of India, have been raising more equity in the months since the coronavirus pandemic broke out. But Shaktikanta Das, the Reserve Bank of India governor, said smaller private and public lenders needed to shore up their capital bases ahead of an expected bad loans shock.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) took control of PMC last September after it was accused of fraud and concealing non-performing loans, Reuters reported. PMC’s top officials and the owners of a realty company that received the bulk of the loans were arrested. The withdrawal cap has left many of PMC’s over 900,000 depositors in deep difficulty. Some say they are struggling to clear loans or pay their children’s school fees, while others say they depend on friends for their groceries.
The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its order on the issue of recovery of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues of insolvent telcos, Mint reported. The apex court said it will also clarify additional liabilities, if any, of Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel on account of past dues on the spectrum they bought from Reliance Communications, Videocon and Aircel respectively. SC noted that if the seller of spectrum did not clear its dues before sale, the liabilities would be transferred to the buyer as per trading guidelines.
An Indian court has agreed to hear a petition by the nation’s largest lender seeking to initiate personal bankruptcy against tycoon Anil Ambani after the former billionaire failed to repay debt, Bloomberg News reported. A two-member panel of the National Company Law Tribunal, or NCLT, in Mumbai has appointed a bankruptcy administrator to verify a claim by State Bank of India, or SBI, that Ambani offered about $160 million of personal guarantees while seeking loans in 2016 for his now insolvent Reliance Communications Ltd.
New measures to allow Indian lenders to restructure loans will provide a “durable” resolution for cash-strapped businesses and help revive the economy, according to the central bank’s chief, Bloomberg News reported. “On one hand health of banks is very important and on the other hand businesses are under a lot of stress due to covid,” Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das Das said in an interview with CNBC-Awaaz on Friday. The plan has replaced a blanket loan moratorium that’s due to expire later this month, he said.
The deadline for completion of Jet Airways (India) Ltd's insolvency resolution process, which was earlier extended till 21 August due to the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the covid-19 virus, will be extended further due to the pandemic, Mint reported. However, the resolution professional (RP) entrusted by the lenders of the airline to complete the insolvency process, hasn't given a fresh deadline yet.