India

One of India’s most acquisitive companies is buying up cement kilns across the country, going from big to bigger. It’s got the right plan, but who’s buying the cement and actually building? Ultratech Cement Ltd. is one of the world’s biggest cement manufacturers, with the capacity to put out 90 million tons a year from plants sprinkled across India, Bloomberg News reported. It purchased distressed assets from Jaiprakash Associates Ltd. and is battling to buy even more out of bankruptcy. Ultratech is taking a smart tack in India’s fragmented cement industry: consolidation.

Indian billionaire Rana Kapoor is being forced from the helm of Yes Bank, the lender he has led since founding it in 2004, as regulators tighten their oversight of the Indian financial sector, the Financial Times reported. The board of Yes Bank, the country’s fourth-largest private-sector bank by assets, had proposed that Mr Kapoor’s term as chief be extended until the end of August 2021. But the Reserve Bank of India has decided that Mr Kapoor, 61, may stay only until the end of January 2019, Yes Bank said in a stock exchange announcement, without giving further details.

One of India’s key shadow banks is in trouble. IL&FS Group, a vast conglomerate that funds infrastructure projects across the world’s fastest-growing major economy, sent shock waves through credit markets when it missed several debt repayments, Bloomberg News reported. That’s causing concern among the myriad investors, including private individuals, who had regarded the group’s debt as rock-solid.

Lenders to India’s power industry are scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss ways to resolve 1.4 trillion rupees ($19.2 billion) of stressed assets that’s hobbling the sector, people with knowledge of the matter said. The meeting will be hosted in New Delhi by Power Finance Corp., a state-owned firm that lends to the country’s electricity generators, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the details aren’t public, Bloomberg News reported. Representatives from the finance and power ministries, and Rural Electrification Corp.

The Indian infrastructure finance firm behind a rare default last month that is reverberating through the nation’s credit markets is delinquent on more borrowings, people familiar with the matter said. Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd., which helped fund India’s longest tunnel, is in default on 3 billion rupees ($41 million) of short-term borrowings taken through so-called inter-corporate deposits from Small Industries Development Bank of India, the people said.

ArcelorMittal shares fell more than 2 percent on Tuesday after the world’s largest steelmaker said it had raised its offer for India’s Essar Steel , prompting concerns that it was overpaying, Reuters reported. ArcelorMittal is forming a joint venture with Japan’s Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp to bid for Essar in competition with bids from Russian lender VTB and Vedanta Resources. It said on Monday that it had submitted a revised proposal representing a “material increase” on its two previous offers.

Second-round bids put in by Russia's VTB Group-backed Numetal Ltd, ArcelorMittal and Vedanta will be opened on Monday, people with direct knowledge of the development said. The Resolution Professional, overseeing the auction of Essar Steel to recover over Rs 49,000 crore of unpaid loans, sent emails to all the three bidders to be present on Monday for the opening of the second round of bids, they said. This follows an NCLAT judgement last week on the eligibility of bids.

Indian lenders haven’t yet been able to restructure 12 stressed loan accounts in the power sector, people with knowledge of the discussions said, underscoring the risk that these may be referred to bankruptcy courts after $52 billion of debt came under scrutiny following a central bank directive, Bloomberg News reported. It was thought that a resolution was possible in seven of these assets, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. Under a central bank directive in February, lenders had until Aug.

A rare default in India’s corporate debt market may prompt households to scrutinize the fine print on money-market funds, which have grown in popularity over lower-yielding bank savings accounts as inflation concerns spread, Bloomberg News reported. IL&FS Financial Services, a unit of a infrastructure finance firm that helped fund India’s longest tunnel, last month missed a payment on its short-term borrowings, according to a filing.

Investors may grow more cautious of buying money market funds after IL&FS Financial Services Ltd. defaulted on its short-term borrowings, according to the Indian unit of Moody’s Investors Service, Bloomberg News reported. IL&FS Financial Services couldn’t repay some of its commercial papers on due date, though the company later settled the debt on Aug. 31, an exchange filing showed on Thursday. The default is likely to drive risk aversion among investors who have been piling into the commercial paper market as rising bond yields make long-term debt unattractive.