Govt moves NCLT for change in management at IL&FS: Report

Moneylife Digital Team 01 October 2018

UPDATED 1.04pm on 1 Oct 2018

The Indian government has finally decided to intervene in the Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS) issue by moving to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for changing management at debt-ridden conglomerate, says media report.

R report from CNBC-TV18 says, the government has proposed to dissolve entire board of IL&FS and appoint 10 new directors with Uday Kotak as its non-executive chairman.

Quoting sources, the report, says, "Foreign shareholders are hesitant in putting more money unless there is a change in the management. Domestic shareholders have also expressed their concerns in lending to the same management at the helm and the government is looking to supersede the IL&FS board."

Sources from the company told the news channel that IL&FS will support and co-operate with the government and the NCLT application will help the company in an early resolution of its pending issues.

Moneylife’s editor Debashis Basu, in his column in the Business Standard has expressed the need for a three-point surgical strike in the IL&FS scam. This includes, immediately getting a new leadership, start selling assets through competitive bids and dismantling IL&FS, he wrote.

When will see a surgical strike on financial scams? Tinkering is not an option in a shadowy hydra headed organisation with Rs1.2 lakh crore of debt.
My piece on #ilfs in @bsindia today #ILFSCrisis pic.twitter.com/V99H5EDMgb
— Debashis Basu (@Moneylifers) October 1, 2018

Last month, Moneylife had pointed out the need to sack incumbent board at IL&FS. "Equity infusion by shareholders is unlikely to be enough to address the problem it faces.

The government needs to have a strong team in place to take charge of IL&FS and make an honest assessment of the situation," Sucheta Dalal, managing editor of Moneylife, wrote last month. (Read: Sack IL&FS Board To Fix the Mess)

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which classifies IL&FS as a systemically important non-banking finance company, has ordered a special audit, only after it began to default.

RBI’s inspection report pointed out “that the net-owned funds of the finance company had been wiped out and that it was over-leveraged.”

RBI is the banking regulator and IL&FS is designated a systemically important finance company. Yet, we are told that it ‘declined to take corrective measures’.

The word ‘declined’ smacks of defiance and is actually borne out by publicly available information. (Read: IL&FS: Regulatory Capture or Plain Defiance?)

At IL&FS, things started unravelling rapidly after Moneylife first reported its Rs1,000-crore default to SIDBI (Small Industries Development Bank of India) on 4th September. (Read: IL&FS defaults on Rs1,000 Crore Short-term Loan from SIDBI?)

This was followed by other defaults and a series of credit downgrades by rating agencies. The group debt is currently estimated at Rs1.2 lakh crore and what we have seen so far are tiny ineffectual steps by the board. It is nowhere up to the task of resolving a giant problem that is, once again, likely to need a bailout by the public through the exchequer.

Comments

User

rajee

6 years ago

this country indebted to sucheta dalal & her team

Mohan Krishnan

6 years ago

When there is a political will things move at supersonic speed.
Having digested hard earned capital of common people now Govt. is giving slap in the wrist for Ex Management, Ex Board, Credit rating agencies, Politicians and Bureaucrats hands in glove, Banksters etc. This is implicit guarantee given by the Govt.
Gainers: Japanese heavy equipment manufacturers, Abu Dhabi, Banksters and Politicians/Bureaucracy.
Losers: As usual, Retirees, Insurance policy holders, Pension Funds, Bank Depositors, poor people who have been denied inflation beating returns (reserved for the rich and FIIs). Truly banana republic.