India

Bankrupt Adhunik Metaliks has received an additional 20 days to complete the ongoing insolvency resolution process, the Financial Express reported. The Kolkata bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Friday ordered exclusion of 20 days from the mandated 270-day deadline under the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) for the company, the flagship of the Adhunik Group.

MK Shrawat, a judicial member of the National Company Law Tribunal, Mumbai bench has permitted a promoter of an insolvent company to do what the amended Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 explicitly disallows, Bloomberg Quint reported. Were his ruling to apply widely, the Ruias could bid for Essar Steel Ltd., Singhals for Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd., and Manoj Gaur would be eligible to submit a resolution plan for his family-owned Jaypee Infratech Ltd.. Section 29A of the IBC specifically bars such promoters from bidding for their companies.

Engineering and construction firm Punj Lloyd today expressed hope that the insolvency plea against the company by ICICI Bank would not be admitted by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), The Economic Times reported. According to the company, 90 per cent of its lenders are supporting a resolution plan under the leadership of the State Bank of India for restructuring the outstanding debts of the company.

Germany’s ThyssenKrupp, under increasing pressure from the activist hedge fund Elliott Management, is scrambling to renegotiate the terms of a proposed European merger with Tata Steel, according to people familiar with talks between the companies. The industrial group and its Indian rival are in the final stages of creating a steelmaking powerhouse with revenues of €15bn that would be Europe’s second-largest producer of the metal, behind ArcelorMittal, the Financial Times reported.

Who’s at fault for Videocon Industries Ltd.’s 39 billion rupees ($579 million) debt pile? The Indian maker of consumer appliances is casting the blame on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to ban cash, the nation’s top court and the Brazilian government, Bloomberg News reported. A bankruptcy court admitted an insolvency petition filed by creditors, led by State Bank of India against Videocon, and ordered debt reorganizers to take over its management. That prompted the company to file an appeal to wrest back control, according to an exchange filing on Tuesday.

From overburdened tribunals to some bizarre judgments and costly delays, India’s new bankruptcy code has had its share of teething troubles. But the law, which will decide the fate of $210 billion in bad loans, has also broken new ground, a Bloomberg View reported. Take the most recent tweak, for instance. Hapless homebuyers left without apartments by debt-stressed builders will have their status raised to that of financial creditors. That’s highly unusual by global standards. It’s a bold innovation, worthy of emulation by other rapidly urbanizing economies.

India’s central bank raised its main lending rate Wednesday, after inflation picked up following a recent surge in crude-oil prices, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Reserve Bank of India’s monetary-policy committee, headed by Gov. Urjit Patel, raised its repurchase rate to 6.25% from 6%. Equity markets, bonds and the Indian rupee were little changed in response. “This wasn’t a total surprise,” said Sujan Hajra, chief economist at Anand Rathi Securities. Still, nine out of 11 economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had predicted the RBI would leave the rate unchanged.

India’s two-year-old bankruptcy law, which gives creditors more power to restructure troubled companies, is luring more and more offshore investors from as far as Canada to buy the nation’s bad debt, Bloomberg News reported. Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, a Canadian pension fund manager, has made $600 million available to Edelweiss Group for investment in local distressed assets, according to R.K. Bansal, an adviser for Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Co. Hong Kong-based SSG Capital Management Ltd.

Reliance Communications Ltd. soared in Mumbai trading after it settled a payment dispute with the local unit of Ericsson AB, allowing the debt-laden phone operator to proceed with a planned asset sale to Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. and possibly stave off insolvency, Bloomberg News reported. RCom, as the company is known, advanced 6.6 percent to close at 18.65 rupees in Mumbai after jumping as much as 20 percent in early trading on Thursday. Its 6.5% bond maturing in November 2020 rose 4.3 cents on the dollar to 56.55, according to prices compiled by Bloomberg.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious plans to privatise major parts of Indian industry were left badly diminished on Thursday after the deadline for potential bidders to express an interest in Air India passed without a single company doing so, the Financial Times reported. Mr Modi had prioritised selling the highly indebted airline in what would have been India’s biggest ever privatisation and a powerful sign of his commitment to economic reform.