Indian tycoon owners of bankrupt companies are being told their assets aren’t off limits, Bloomberg News reported. Weeks after India’s criminal enforcement bureau announced a second auction of the prized personal possessions of fugitive jeweler Nirav Modi including his favorite watch and his Rolls Royce Ghost, the U.K High Court recently asked Anil Ambani to deposit $100 million of his personal wealth to partially pay back debt due to a trio of Chinese banks. The rush to collect on the assets includes a swoop on Vijay Mallya’s French island mansion and yacht by Qatar National Bank.
New measures by New Delhi designed to encourage banks to boost lending and take more risks are unlikely to revive anaemic credit growth in Asia’s third-biggest economy, industry observers have warned, the Financial Times reported. The Reserve Bank of India on Thursday eased new lending for cars, residential housing and small businesses and introduced a $14bn facility that allows commercial lenders to borrow more cheaply from the central bank.
After Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while presenting Union Budget 2020 on 1st February, said the government has asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to extend the debt restructuring window by another year ending March 31, 2021, RBI in its Monetary Policy Review Meeting today said that it would be extending the scheme to 31st December 2020, Mint reported.
India’s real estate financiers surged after the central bank relaxed conditions to set aside cash for loans offered to small businesses or to fund individuals’ purchases of homes and vehicles, Bloomberg News reported. The Reserve Bank of India also allowed banks to continue to treat as ‘standard’ defaulting loans to commercial real estate borrowers if the repayment delays were due to reasons “beyond the control” of the company.
India’s central bank unveiled steps to encourage banks to lend more to small businesses and home buyers in a bid to spur credit growth in the struggling economy, Bloomberg News reported. Banks will be exempt from setting aside the mandatory cash reserve ratio of 4% of fresh loans for automobiles, residential housing and small businesses until July 31, the Reserve Bank of India said Thursday. It also extended a relaxation of rules on the classification of loans and introduced a 1 trillion rupee ($14 billion) facility for banks to borrow cheaply from the central bank.
Dewan Housing Finance Corp. Ltd (DHFL), India’s first non-bank lender to face bankruptcy proceedings, has a curious mix of operational creditors, Mint reported. On one end of the spectrum, there’s investment bank Rothschild & Co. India Pvt. Ltd. And then, on the other end of the spectrum are neighbourhood tea shops and florists, all claiming that their dues haven’t been cleared by the company, according to documents reviewed by Mint.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Tuesday reserved its order over a batch of petitions over Bhushan Power and Steel''s sale to JSW Steel under the insolvency process, Outlook reported. An NCLAT bench headed by Justice S J Mukhopadhaya concluded its hearing as arguments in all seven petitions, including JSW Steel and former promoters of Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd (BPSL), are over.
The government notification stating that third-party assets, or loan pools sold by non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), must be serviced even when the company is under insolvency proceedings will give a boost to securitisation transactions, rating agency Icra said on Tuesday, The Financial Express reported. The notification was issued after defaults on securitisation transactions originated by troubled mortgage lender Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL) following a court-ordered moratorium on repayments to creditors.
India is cutting income taxes and increasing spending, hoping to resuscitate growth, which has tumbled to a 10-year low in Asia’s third-largest economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. Some economists and executives, however, warned that some of the measures unveiled over the weekend could end up hurting the economy more than they help it.
India and China have been hit by a surge in consumer prices that, together with a slowdown in growth, has sparked fears of “stagflation” in the world’s two most populous countries, the Financial Times reported. If the Asian powerhouses were to be overtaken by the phenomenon — rising prices in a stagnant economy — their slowing economies would pose a grave threat to global growth. The prospect of stagflation has haunted Beijing for the past six months. China’s economic growth is at a 29-year low and consumer price inflation remains above 4 per cent.