India

Qatar Airways is reviewing plans for its own domestic Indian airline due to “confusing” foreign ownership rules and could work with a partner in India or take a stake in IndiGo instead, its chief executive said on Tuesday. The state-owned Gulf carrier has long coveted the Indian aviation market, which is the fastest growing in the world, and in 2017 said it would set up a domestic airline, a year after India eased foreign investment rules for the sector, Reuters reported.

Emso Asset Management, the $5.5bn emerging markets hedge fund, is to enter India’s growing corporate restructuring market with a local partner, the latest global investor to target a wave of $140bn in bad debt in the country, the Financial Times reported. A new bankruptcy law is forcing some of India’s biggest conglomerates into restructuring as local banks struggle with mounting bad debts following a boom in industrial lending.

Jindal Steel & Power Ltd. is considering a breakup plan as part of a restructuring to help trim its 420 billion rupee ($6 billion) debt pile and boost investor confidence in a company that was once India’s biggest steelmaker by market value, Bloomberg News reported. The New Delhi-based company is looking at splitting its steel, power and international businesses into three separate entities, Chairman Naveen Jindal said in an interview. Any such plan would need the approval of lenders, regulators and the board, he said.

India’s banks have stepped up a drive to sell the assets of companies that can’t repay their debts. A deadline set by the central bank to restructure an estimated 3.6 trillion rupees ($51 billion) of stressed loans expired on Aug. 27, driving at least a dozen companies into bankruptcy proceedings, Bloomberg News reported. Many of the other indebted companies are finding buyers, adding to already record levels of mergers and acquisitions in Asia’s third-largest economy this year.

Varde Partners Inc. and Aditya Birla Capital Ltd. are creating a joint venture to invest as much as $1 billion in distressed assets in India, according to people familiar with the transaction, who asked not to be identified because the information is private, Bloomberg News reported. The U.S. investment firm and Indian financial services provider, helmed by billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla, are expected to deploy this sum over three years, one of the people said. The venture, which will scout for deals of up to $100 million, may be announced as early as this week, the person said.

Indian tycoon Anil Ambani has declared a moment of “transformation” for his troubled business empire, after selling a large Mumbai power business for $2bn in his quest to pare a hefty debt burden, the Financial Times reported. Announcing the sale of Reliance Infrastructure’s Mumbai distribution business to Adani Transmission on Wednesday, Mr Ambani said the total proceeds of Rs188bn ($2.7bn) would slash the leverage of his flagship business.

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani’s energy unit is nearing a deal to acquire a 1,370-megawatt thermal power plant backed by GMR Infrastructure Ltd., according to people with knowledge of the matter. Adani Power Ltd. will take over about 38 billion rupees ($543 million) of loans out of a total of 58 billion rupees that GMR Chhattisgarh Energy Ltd. owes, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private, Bloomberg News reported. Adani Power will also assume non-funded liabilities of about 14 billion rupees, the people said.

Reliance Communications Ltd., the Indian wireless carrier that’s trying to pay down debt, wrapped up the sale of its fiber and related infrastructure assets for 30 billion rupees ($429 million) to Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, Bloomberg News reported. The Anil Ambani-helmed operator is transferring 178,000 kilometers of fiber to sibling billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s company, according to an exchange filing. Reliance Communications’ shares were down about 0.5 percent on Monday in Mumbai at 11:15 a.m., taking declines this year to 48 percent. S&P BSE Sensex was trading 1 percent higher.

Formula One owner Liberty Media could be left with an unexpected bill of $67.3 million driven by a dispute over the recent rescue of the Force India racing team. Force India crashed into administration, the British equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, at the end of July after its owners got into financial difficulty, Forbes reported. Last week the team’s assets were sold to a new vehicle called Racing Point which is led by Lawrence Stroll, the tycoon who helped to develop the Tommy Hilfiger fashion brand.

An Indian court rejected a plea by the nation’s power producers to exempt generators from central bank’s rules on repaying loans, according to the Independent Power Producers Association of India.