A 22-member lenders' consortium led by ICICI Bank has failed to agree on a proposal from ABG Shipyard to recast its Rs 11,500-crore loan, a majority of which turned into dud assets on their books, sources said here today, the Economic Times reported. "There was no consensus on the terms of the loan restructuring proposal from ABG Shipyard at the corporate debt restructuring cell meeting held last Friday," a senior official of a state-run bank told PTI today, adding that banks are not sure about the promoter's ability to bring in fresh equity contribution of around Rs 300 crore.

Indian PV manufacturer Indosolar has asked to have its debt restructured because it says low equipment prices mean it is unable to make a profit, PV-Tech reported. In a stock exchange filing last week, the Indian company said one of its plants, a 160MW plant in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, had been idled because the high cost of production against the low prices for PV cells “did not yield margins”.

Sree Metaliks, a maker of sponge iron in Odisha, could well be the second company where promoters may end up relinquishing management control over loan default. Agarwals, the founders of the company, face the prospect of losing the company as its key lender, IFCI, plans to sell its convertible debentures to any bidder to recover its dues, the Economic Times reported. The move to change management of a defaulting company is rare and comes within a month of the Reserve Bank of India and finance ministry prodding lenders to chase away defaulting borrowers.

Indian firms are selling their assets to raise cash, as banks are tightening the screws on loan repayments to help stem rising bad debt, The Wall Street Journal reported. Several companies sold pieces of their business last year, and bankers say more are likely to do so in the coming year, as the Indian economy continues to be sluggish and interest rates remain high. Indian companies had borrowed heavily in the late 2000s, when interest rates were low and India's economy was growing between 8% and 9%.

The Bombay high court on Thursday continued an order of interim protection granted earlier to a company against the State Bank of India. The HC restrained the Bank from publishing, photographs, names and addresses of the Petitioners as wilful defaulters in any newspaper or other media, The Times of India reported. The Bank had issued notice on December 21, 2013 to Icaro Machines India Private Limited and others. The company challenged the notice in the HC. On January 2, the matter was heard by vacation judge Justice Gautam Patel.

Chennai-based Consolidated Construction Consortium Ltd (CCCL) has applied for the Corporate Debt Restructuring Scheme. "The necessary application for the same is being filed with CDR cell for its approval," the company said in a filing to the exchanges, the Business Standard reported. R Sarabeswar, chairman and chief executive officer of CCCL, did not offer a comment when contacted. Several infrastructure projects, including Chennai Metro, have been delayed due to various reasons affecting the company's balance sheet, according to industry sources.

India's Lanco Infratech Ltd. is reportedly in the process of signing one of the country's largest corporate debt restructuring deals. The said deal will allow the debt-stricken infrastructure developer to reschedule repayment of as much as INR7,500 crore and give it access to new credit of INR3,500 crore. Economic Times, quoting Lanco Infratech's Amardeep Jaiswal, said the company and a consortium of over 25 lenders led by Mumbai-based IDBI Bank Ltd. on Friday met in Gurgaon to work out the details of the deal. Jaiswal is Lanco Infratech's legal affairs head.

The decision by India’s top investigating agency to probe a third billionaire-led mining deal in six months puts at risk government efforts to revive $160 billion of stalled projects, Bloomberg News reported today. The Central Bureau of Investigation said on Dec. 23 it started probing Anil Agarwal, who runs the country’s biggest aluminum and copper producer. It alleged irregularities in his 2002 purchase of the state’s 26 percent stake in Hindustan Zinc Ltd., a producer of zinc used in making metals and chemicals.

Both the Reserve Bank of India, the central bank, and State Bank of India, the largest of the big, state-owned banks, are voicing determination to go after recalcitrant borrowers as the volume of problem debts, whether acknowledged or not, continues to grow, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. It is not clear whether this time is different and the banks are really serious about putting pressure on borrowers who are unable or (in many cases) unwilling to repay the banks. But they should be.

The new chairman of State Bank of India has pledged to crack down on rising levels of corporate bad debt that have alarmed policy makers and foreign investors in Asia’s third-largest economy, the Financial Times reported. Arundhati Bhattacharya took over the state-backed bank in October. India’s biggest lender, which controls about a fifth of the country’s $1.5tn of bank assets, has struggled to cope with a sharp increase in non-performing loans in the aftermath of India’s recent economic slowdown.