India

India’s Reliance Communications (RCom) said on Wednesday it expects to complete its asset sale to Reliance Jio Infocomm and Canada’s Brookfield in coming weeks, after the bankruptcy appeals court halted insolvency proceedings against the debt-laden company, Reuters reported. The 181 billion-rupee ($2.7 billion) asset sale by businessman Anil Ambani-controlled RCom includes airwaves, fiber, mobile masts and real estate assets in Delhi and Chennai, the company said in a statement, as it aims to prune its debt pile.

India’s bankruptcy appeals court delayed a hearing of Reliance Communications’ (RCom) plea seeking to overturn insolvency proceedings against the company to Wednesday, Reuters reported. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s (NCLAT) move comes after local television stations reported that RCom had offered to pay 5 billion rupees to the Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson, which had dragged the Indian telecom company into bankruptcy courts. The NCLAT has given RCom time until Wednesday to reach a settlement with Ericsson, the CNBC TV18 and ET Now channels reported.

After a nationwide manhunt, Neeraj Singal was finally tracked down and seized by fraud investigators at an upscale New Delhi hotel in 2014. Accused of involvement in the bribing of bankers, a charge Mr Singal denies, the scion of the Bhushan Steel empire was hauled off for questioning, the Financial Times reported. Within days he was released on bail and returned as the controlling shareholder of Bhushan, built by his father from a door hinge producer into one of India’s largest industrial groups.

India’s economic and credit slowdown is revealing the strengths and weaknesses of its banking sector. Roiled by unprecedented frauds and surging bad debt, the nation’s state-run banks have returned the least to investors this year, Bloomberg News reported. However, investors’ belief in the potential of Asia’s No. 3 economy shows in the fact that its newest lenders offer the best returns, and a clutch of private Indian banks are among the world’s most expensive.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi completes four years in office on May 26. He’s used the time to give India its biggest tax reform, overhauled a century-old bankruptcy law, revived stalled projects and got the World Bank to say Asia’s No. 3 economy is a much better place to do business. Still, all’s not well with the economy, Bloomberg News reported. Once-trusted state-owned banks are facing allegations of fraud, their soured-debt pile is larger than ever, investors are dumping Indian stocks and bonds amid a stronger dollar and U.S. Treasury yields.

State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender by assets, joined its private peers in shrugging off losses as investors believe the lenders have finally got a handle on bad loans, Bloomberg News reported. SBI’s shares surged to a six-week high after it reported a record loss on Tuesday, weighed down by a doubling in provisions for soured debt. A similar contrarian market reaction was seen after No. 2 private lender ICICI Bank Ltd. and smaller rival Axis Bank Ltd. reported poorer-than-expected earnings.

At least 30 companies of the region are undergoing insolvency proceedings filed by banks before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Chandigarh, since the enactment of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) last year, The Tribune reported. “These include Amtek Auto, SEL Manufacturing, James Hospitality, Arcee Ispat Udyog Ltd, Mor Farms (P) Ltd and Castex Technologies. The cases have been filed by the creditors, including Corporation Bank, SBI and PNB,” said sources. Amtek Auto has a liability of Rs 14,000 crore.

India’s Tata Steel Ltd said on Friday it had completed the acquisition of a 72.7 percent stake in Bhushan Steel Ltd, which was in bankruptcy court over unpaid loans, Reuters reported. As part of the deal, a unit of Tata Steel is paying 352.33 billion rupees ($5.18 billion) to Bhushan Steel’s creditor banks. It will also pay Bhushan Steel’s operational creditors, such as vendors, another 12 billion rupees over 12 months. The Tata Steel unit will raise a bridge loan of 165 billion rupees to help fund the acquisition, while Tata Steel is investing the remainder in the unit, Bamnipal Steel.

In a related story, Bloomberg Quint reported that state-owned Bank of India would be able to realise around Rs 1993 crore from the first successful resolution by the National Company Law Tribunal concerning Tata Steel and Bhushan Steel, an official said. The amount would not include haircuts, BoI Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer D Mohapatra said. The realisation of the amount would lead to non-performing asset reduction and increase profitability of the bank, he said. “The first successful NCLT resolution involving Tata Steel and Bhushan Steel will help in realise Rs 1,993 crore.

Reliance Communications said it was in advanced talks with Ericsson to resolve “commercial issues”, after two sources indicated it was currently uncertain if the firms’ discussions over dues would lead to an out-of-court settlement, Reuters reported. Earlier this week, India’s bankruptcy court admitted a plea by the Swedish telecom gearmaker seeking insolvency resolution against debt-laden Reliance Communications (RCom) over unpaid service dues, potentially derailing the company’s plans to sell assets to larger rival Reliance Jio.