In a big relief for banks, the government is bringing in multiple reforms to the three-year-old Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), providing clarity about preference to secured lenders over operational creditors, to be applicable retrospectively; strict timelines for the resolution and litigation process; and powers of the committee of creditors (CoC) Business Standard reported. Lenders and legal experts say that the amendments, especially regarding the treatment of operational creditors, will help end the uncertainty around recovery for the financial creditors of Essar Steel.
India
Read more
The family that controls Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd., India’s largest private hospital chain, is looking to sell assets or bring an outside investor into their holding company to pay down debt, Bloomberg News reported. The aim is to reduce the Apollo shares pledged by the family as collateral to lenders, to 20% of their total holding in the company from about 78% now, said Suneeta Reddy, Apollo’s managing director and one of the four daughters of founder Prathap Reddy. The Reddy family owns about 34% of Apollo’s stock.
Cash-strapped Dewan Housing Finance Corp. is in discussions with its bondholders to revamp its debt as the Indian mortgage lender tries to shore up its financials after posting its first quarterly loss in more than a decade, Bloomberg News reported. In a meeting with its rupee bondholders last week, Dewan Housing discussed an inter-creditor agreement that the consortium of bankers has agreed to enter for a potential restructuring of its liabilities, according to three people familiar with the matter.
A group of lenders led by State Bank of India has filed a case in the nation’s Supreme Court seeking to annul a ruling that gives almost equal rights over the country’s largest distressed steel mill’s obligations to lenders and its 1,936 vendors, Bloomberg News reported. Earlier this month an Indian bankruptcy court, that allowed ArcelorMittal’s $6 billion purchase of Essar Steel India Ltd. said the money has to be shared proportionately among all creditors. The judgment will enable vendors such as Associated Road Carriers Ltd.
India’s insolvency tribunal has made a dangerous decision. Unless its judgment is quashed, credit costs for India Inc. will surge, shares of state-run banks will swoon and foreign investors will flee. The case concerns the country’s most high-profile bankruptcy, Essar Steel India Ltd, a Bloomberg View reported. Insolvency judges recently ruled that creditors whose claims are backed by collateral won’t get preferential treatment in the $6 billion sale of the company’s plant to ArcelorMittal. Secured creditors will stand in line with unsecured creditors.
Suzlon Energy Ltd., which became India’s biggest convertible-note defaulter in 2012, said it missed payments on dollar-denominated convertibles due Tuesday. The stressed wind-turbine maker faced a July 16 deadline to repay $172 million outstanding on such securities that were issued as part of a debt restructuring, Bloomberg News reported. While that revamp helped the company’s shares surge in 2014-2015, they’ve since slumped after India’s shift to auctions for building wind projects increased competition and diluted Suzlon’s market share.
JSW Steel Ltd., India’s most valuable steel producer, said it is likely to go ahead with a 197 billion rupees ($2.9 billion) offer to buy out a stressed steel mill even as a string of accounting frauds were uncovered at the target company, Bloomberg News reported. While JSW is “so far” not backing out of its offer to buy Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd., the company is anxious about the alleged frauds and its impact on the sale process, it’s lawyer Arun Kathpalia said Monday during a hearing at the National Company Law Tribunal. Earlier this month Allahabad Bank Ltd.
Film and entertainment group Eros International Plc on Monday swung to a loss in the fourth quarter due to an impairment charge and a rise in costs, sending its U.S-listed shares down more than 6% in premarket trade, Reuters reported. The company, which owns a vast library of Bollywood movies and music, has been struggling after a rating agency categorised its Indian subsidiary’s debt at “default” levels due to delays in payments.
Investors in Indian corporate debt are watching whether a stressed wind-turbine maker will repay its dollar-denominated convertible bonds due Tuesday, and help avoid further widening of strains in the nation’s credit market, Bloomberg News reported. Suzlon Energy Ltd., which became India’s biggest convertible note defaulter when it missed payments in 2012, must repay $172 million outstanding on such securities that were issued as part of a debt restructuring.