The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal today asked the Ahmedabad bench of the National Company Law Tribunal to pass its final order in the Rs 42,000-crore resolution plan submitted by ArcelorMittal for the insolvent Essar Steel by March 8, BloombergQuint reported. Earlier, the NCLAT had given time till Feb. 28 for the NCLT to deliver its final order in the case, stating that the appellate tribunal would take over from March 1. In October 2018, the committee of creditors for Essar Steel had selected the Lakshmi Mittal-owned company as the winning bidder for the insolvent steelmaker.
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India’s Jet Airways Ltd said on Wednesday it grounded seven more aircraft as the carrier failed to make payments to its lessors, taking the tally of planes hamstrung by the defaults to 13, Reuters reported. Jet is "actively engaged" with all its aircraft lessors, the airline said, adding that its aircraft lessors have been supportive of the company's efforts to improve liquidity. With debts of more than $1 billion, Jet has defaulted on loans and has not paid pilots, leasing firms and suppliers for months.
A family office that manages money for India’s wealthy Jhunjhunwala family is looking to invest in finance companies which have been pummeled by the crisis in the country’s shadow banking sector, Bloomberg News reported. Singapore-based AJ Capital Asset Management Pte sees good value in the shares of the downtrodden non-bank lenders, according to the firm’s Chief Executive Abhinav Jhunjhunwala. He said he’s also looking to invest in private companies in the sector, including through acquisitions.
Bankruptcy proceedings usually involve protecting a firm’s assets from creditors. An Indian tribunal has turned the concept on its head by offering protection to the lenders. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal ordered that no lender can declare its exposure to embattled IL&FS Group as nonperforming without its permission – even if there is a default, a Bloomberg View reported.
Billionaire Anil Ambani’s telecom unit is still fighting to get approval for the sale of its airwaves, indicating that the company hasn’t given up on selling the assets outside India’s bankruptcy process, Bloomberg News reported. India’s Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal on Monday heard arguments on Reliance Communications Ltd.’s petition to allow it to sell its airwaves without past liabilities from the asset being passed to the buyer. The issue was behind the unraveling of RCom’s deal to offload its assets to Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., owned by Anil’s older brother.
State Bank of India (SBI) said reports on Monday that it was considering taking heavily indebted Jet Airways Ltd to an insolvency tribunal to recover loans were “speculative”, and no such decision had been taken, Reuters reported. The loss-making Indian airline approved a rescue deal in mid-February after months of crisis-talks to plug a 85 billion rupee ($1.2 billion) funding hole. The plan includes selling a majority stake to a consortium led by SBI, the airline’s biggest creditor, at 1 rupee.
India’s Jet Airways Ltd said late on Friday that its shareholders approved a plan to convert existing debt to equity, paving the way for the troubled company’s lenders to infuse funds and nominate directors to its board. Jet’s board last week approved a plan by lenders, led by State Bank of India, for an equity infusion, debt restructuring and the sale or sale-and-lease-back of aircraft, Reuters reported. The plan will mean the lenders will have a bigger holding than any other shareholder.
India’s property developers are finding it hard to borrow money, raising the prospect of a wave of debt defaults from the sector hitting shadow lenders that are trying to survive a funding crunch of their own, Bloomberg News reported. Developers have to repay about 1.29 trillion rupees a year on outstanding debt but generate less than half the amount in income that can be used for repayments, according to an analysis of about 11,000 companies by research firm Liases Foras.
Business tycoon Anil Ambani is planning to use a payment from his brother’s company and the sale of real estate assets to pay what he owes to Sweden’s Ericsson following a court ruling this week, a source familiar with the matter said. India’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered Ambani’s Reliance Communications Ltd and two of its directors to pay Ericsson 4.5 billion rupees ($63.30 million) within four weeks or face a three-month jail term for contempt of court, Reuters reported.
International lessors have grounded more Jet Airways planes prior to potentially moving them out of India, as scepticism builds whether a state-led bailout of the carrier can clear their dues on time, sources familiar with the matter said, Reuters reported. The troubles at India’s Jet, which is saddled with a billion dollars in debt, have rekindled memories of Kingfisher Airlines’ collapse in 2012 that forced lessors to write off millions of dollars. Jet has defaulted on loans and has not paid pilots, leasing firms and suppliers for months.