India

Steel tycoon Sajjan Jindal’s JSW Steel Ltd. will consider an investment from Japan’s second-biggest mill as the Mumbai-based firm looks to acquire distressed companies in India, according to Joint Managing Director Seshagiri Rao, Bloomberg News reported. JSW shares rallied to a record. India’s largest producer would prefer to acquire mills located in the eastern parts of the country and is open to partnering with JFE Holdings Inc. for acquisitions, Rao said in an interview in Mumbai. “Today we have nothing in mind saying we have to approach JFE or anybody.

India is making good progress in dealing with bad loans that are weighing down on the country’s banks, suggesting long-term valuations for the financial industry are set to improve, according to the head of HDFC Bank Ltd, Bloomberg News reported. The resolution of soured debt will help boost valuations, Aditya Puri, HDFC Bank’s managing director, said in an interview at his office in Mumbai.

In the central Indian village of Raikheda, the construction of a thermal coal power plant once promised jobs and economic progress. Years after its completion though, the debt-saddled project that promised power supply to hundreds of thousands of homes, sits mostly idle, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. It is unable to buy coal to power the plant or sell electricity to utilities. Dozens of nearby stores that were reliant on the project's success have shut down. Raikheda is not alone.

Indian banks taking 12 of the country's largest defaulters to bankruptcy court under a central bank directive, will need to make additional provisioning of at least 180 billion rupees ($2.8 billion), India Ratings and Research said on Tuesday. India Ratings, an affiliate of Fitch Ratings, estimated the current average provisioning towards those 12 accounts at 42 percent, adding the extra provisioning needed would reduce the profits of creditor banks by about a quarter in the financial year to March 2018, Reuters reported.

India's Gujarat High Court on Monday dismissed Essar Steel India Ltd's appeal against a central bank order that asked creditor banks to start insolvency proceedings against the steelmaker, lawyers on the case said. The ruling is a boost to the government, which in May tweaked Indian banking laws to empower the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to tackle the country's bad debt issue, allowing the RBI for the first time to direct lenders to force defaulters into insolvency courts, Reuters reported.

Emboldened by the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Ordinance, the RBI is expected to push for resolution of bad loans worth around Rs. 8 lakh crore by March 2019, a move that could bring down the NPAs and improve the financial health of banks, a study by Assocham said, Firstpost reported. “So, it should be safe to assume that the non-performing assets (NPAs) mess would largely be resolved by the first quarter of financial year 2019-20,” Assocham study titled ’NPAs Resolution: Light at the end of tunnel by March 2019’ said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet has signed off on a plan to sell all or part of Air India Ltd., a debt-ridden, state-run carrier with the most unusual baggage, Bloomberg News reported. The airline’s balance sheet includes commercial space near London Heathrow, land in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Nairobi, all bought during the heydays when the airline commissioned paintings by Indian modern artists and hired surrealist painter Salvador Dali in the 1960s to design ashtrays.

Tata Steel Ltd. has completed restructuring its British operations with the sale of two steel pipe mills in the U.K. that were put on the block last year, Bloomberg News reported. The Mumbai-based company has entered into a definitive pact with Liberty House Group to sell its 42-inch and 84-inch pipe mills at Hartlepool, employing about 140 people, it said in an exchange filing on Tuesday, without disclosing the financial value. The transaction is expected to be completed in the next few months. “With this sale, Tata Steel U.K.

In January, Innoventive Industries, a speciality steelmaker based in western India, was forced into the bankruptcy court by its lenders, testing for the first time new insolvency rules that aim to resolve India's $150 billion bad debt overhang, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The company, which makes steel tubes and auto parts for customers including Ford, Volkswagen and Tata Motors, posted its third straight annual loss in 2016, prompting ICICI, one of its lead lenders, to trigger bankruptcy proceedings early this year.

India's Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board on Thursday called for public comment on the country's revised bankruptcy code that went into effect last year, signaling that it plans to tweak the law, which the government hopes will resolve India's $150 billion stressed-loans problem, Reuters reported. The board said the window for receiving comments will be open till Dec 31. Modifications to the regulations would be made by March 31 and take effect from April 1, 2018.