An Indian irrigation company has been cut to default by S&P Global Ratings after it failed to pay interest on its green dollar bond, in a further sign that stress among local firms is spilling over into the nation’s offshore debt market, Bloomberg News reported. Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd. missed an interest payment due last month on the $200 million of notes maturing in 2022, issued by its unit Jain International Trading BV. S&P said that it cut its rating on the company and the notes to D after the 30-day grace period for meeting the obligation ended March 3.
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India’s top builder is marketing a complex debt offering that it needs to complete successfully to avoid a default, Bloomberg News reported. The new bond from Lodha Developers International Ltd. will be key for it to refinance its existing $324 million note maturing March 13. The company also needs to meet conditions involving setting aside cash before it can tap the proceeds of the bond. “We feel very good about the level of interest and commitments we have so far,” said Abhishek Lodha, chief executive officer of Macrotech Developers Ltd., which is the flagship company of the Lodha group.
An asset manager backed by Asia’s richest banker has finally invested in a stressed Indian asset, in a positive sign for the broader push to clean up the nation’s massive pile of bad debt, Bloomberg News reported. Kotak Special Situations Fund invested 5 billion rupees ($69 million) in beleaguered Jindal Stainless Ltd., India’s largest stainless steel producer, according to a statement. The fund is backed by billionaire banker Uday Kotak.
India’s troubled shadow banks face their biggest test yet in the months ahead: a record bill to settle in the local debt market, Bloomberg News reported. The lenders will need to repay 1.1 trillion rupees ($15.1 billion) of local-currency bonds in the three months starting April 1, the most ever for a quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That will prove challenging for the lower-rated ones among them, given they’ve been largely shut out of the domestic funding market.
Indian shadow bank Altico Capital India Ltd. is inching toward the final stage of a debt restructuring that’s been keenly watched as the country grapples with a crisis in the industry, Bloomberg News reported. Rival hedge fund bidders Cerberus Capital and SSG Capital raised their bids for Altico late last week, people familiar with the matter said. The raised bids mean that creditors of the shadow lender could recover at least 71% of their outstanding debt of 38.7 billion rupees ($538 million), a marked improvement from earlier bids.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday that banks have informed the Finance Ministry regarding the number of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) that have been restructured, approached and provided loans to, Republic World reported. The Finance Minister has also directed the banks to clear out all the pending MSMEs by March 15. This comes as FM Sitharaman informed that the Government has asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to extend the deadline for restructuring the debt scheme for MSME beyond March 31, 2020.
After more than a decade of share price outperformance, the skies have darkened for IndusInd Bank Ltd., as the Indian lender faces challenges from worsening asset quality to a transition to new leadership, Bloomberg News reported. IndusInd has a hefty exposure to India’s troubled telecommunications sector as well as to real estate where several developers are struggling amid the country’s prolonged shadow banking crisis.
JSW Steel Ltd.’s $2.7 billion purchase of a bankrupt steel mill is facing a fresh hurdle after a former chairman of Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd. challenged the deal in the country’s top court, Bloomberg News reported. Sanjay Singal filed a petition on Monday against a ruling by a bankruptcy tribunal that had approved the deal earlier this month, according to the Supreme Court’s website. The petition hasn’t yet been allotted a date for a hearing. A JSW spokesman declined to comment.
U.S. satellite broadband provider Hughes Network Systems may have to shut its Indian operations due to unpaid levies owed to the government, which could put thousands of banking services at risk, a company letter seen by Reuters showed, Reuters reported. India’s Supreme Court late last year ordered a number of telecom companies, including Hughes and larger firms like Vodafone, to pay billions of dollars owed to the government. Hughes’ India unit provides services to defence, education and banking sectors in the country and told India’s telecoms minister in a letter dated Feb.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has dismissed the insolvency plea filed by IFCI against ACCIL Hospitality, a corporate guarantor of debt-ridden steel products maker Asian Colour Coated Ispat, Outlook reported. The tribunal observed that creditors of a debt-ridden company cannot file fresh insolvency plea against its corporate guarantor after collating the claims from principal borrowers as it would amount to "duplicity of claims being pressed".