India

Troubles among India’s non-bank financiers will persist for at least a year even if the danger of a full-blown financial crisis has passed, according to the head of the nation’s most valuable bank, Bloomberg News reported. Tighter regulatory oversight and asset sales have staved off the worst of the problems afflicting India’s non-bank financial firms following last year’s defaults by Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd., according to HDFC Bank Ltd.’s Managing Director Aditya Puri.

GMR Infrastructure Limited (GIL) announced execution of resolution plan for its stressed GMR Rajahmundry Energy Limited (GREL) – 768 MW gas-fired power plant in Andhra Pradesh, Business Standard reported. The company informed the exchanges on Friday morning that it has paid a portion of the sustainable debt of the project. The resolution plan which has been approved by the lenders of the project consisted of reduction of total debt of Rs 2353 crore to sustainable debt of Rs 1412 crore.

An insolvency professional (IP) may not find it easy to wriggle out of an existing transaction because of the difficult situations faced during the corporate insolvency resolution or liquidation process. This is because the insolvency regulator, IBBI, has advised the Insolvency Professional Agencies (IPAs) — who register the IPs with them — not to ordinarily accept ‘temporary surrender’ of professional membership of an IP while doing the CIRP or individual insolvency resolution and individual bankruptcy, The Hindu Business Line reported.

About 13 percent of corporate insolvency resolution processes (CIRPs) until the end of March 2019 were resolved, while 53 percent cases ended in liquidation, according to data from the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), moneycontrol.com reported. Average realisation by financial creditors as a share of claims was only 43 percent. In its report, the IBBI said 359 cases had been admitted for corporate insolvency. Of this, the resolution plan for 14 was approved while 73 went into liquidation in the January-March quarter.

In its first major acquisition, Yoga guru Baba Ramdev-led Patanjali Ayurved walked away with debt-ridden edible oil firm Ruchi Soya with a bid of Rs 4,325 crore, sources said. Ruchi Soya has a total debt of about Rs 12,000 crore, Firstpost reported. When contacted, Patanjali confirmed the development, a PTI report said. "We are informed about the development. Voting has gone in our favour," Patanjali Ayurved spokesperson S K Tijarawala said. "Tomorrow they would hand over the result to us and then we would proceed further," he added.

An Indian appellate tribunal has lifted a stay on insolvency proceedings against business tycoon Anil Ambani’s debt-laden Reliance Communications, the Economic Times reported on Tuesday. The decision by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) could potentially force Sweden’s Ericsson to return 5.5 billion Indian rupees ($79.06 million) in dues and interest that RCom paid the telecoms equipment maker last month, Reuters reported.

In a bid to step up its efforts to control non-performing assets (NPAs), the State Bank of India (SBI) is hiring more bankruptcy and legal firms to strengthen its stressed assets team to handle cases of above Rs 100 crore under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), Kerala News reported. "The bank seeks to empanel advocates/law firms for handling cases of above Rs 100 crore," the SBI said. The SBI is currently in the process of examining the applications. The bank has 20 stressed asset management branches across the country which report to its central stressed asset resolution vertical.

India’s top court directed the central bank to disclose its inspection reports on lenders to allow people to gauge their health. The order was the “last opportunity” to avoid initiation of contempt proceedings against Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice L.N. Rao ruled Friday, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank will comply with the order, the RBI’s lawyer informed the court.

Lenders of debt-ridden Jaypee Infratech will meet on April 26 and 30 to discuss revised bids submitted by state-owned NBCC and Suraksha Realty to acquire the realty firm and complete over 20,000 delayed apartments in Noida, Asian Age reported. NBCC and Suraksha group, which are in the race to acquire the Jaypee Group firm, were asked by the lenders to sweeten their offers and both the potential buyers have submitted their revised offers under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

Few things illustrate the malaise in India’s property market as starkly as would-be homeowners having to dedicate untold hours to completing the flats they spent years saving up for. While no estimates exist for the number of people in Vazirani’s position, India’s property market is struggling to digest some $65 billion worth of projects in various stages of completion -- or, in many cases, non-completion, Bloomberg News reported.