NEW DELHI: The government on Monday took control of the debt-laden Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS), whose recent defaults have roiled the markets. A six-member board has also been formed led by the managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank,
Uday Kotak.
Tech Mahindra chief Vineet Nayyar, former Sebi chief GN Bajpai, ICICI Bank non-executive chairman GC Chaturvedi, former IAS officers Malini Shankar and Nand Kishore are the other board members.
The newly-formed board will hold meeting by October 8 and report to the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal). Roadmap to resolve issues will be taken on the next hearing scheduled for October 31.
String of defaults from IL&FS has already led to several rating cuts on the company which has more than Rs 91,000 crore debt pile.
This is not the first time that a government has stepped up to rescue a company. In the 2009 Satyam case, government had superseded the board and appointed 10 directors and Deepak Parekh, chairman HDFC, was tasked with finding a resolution.
The finance ministry, in a statement, said the move was essential to restore confidence in the financial market and hoped that financial institutions would provide the NBFC (non-banking financial company) liquidity.
Earlier, the government had filed an application with the NCLT to remove the board of the company, warning the continuance of the current directors would be prejudicial and not in the interest of the public.
The step comes after IL&FS announced on Sunday that its shareholders had approved a plan to raise funds via debt and equity issuances. Before this, the firm had said its board would develop a “comprehensive” restructuring plan to pay its dues through asset sales and a rights issue.
Life Insurance Corp Ltd (LIC), IL&FS’ biggest shareholder with a more than 25 per cent stake, had said last week that it would participate in the rights issue.
IL&FS’s other large investors are Japan’s ORIX Corp with a 23.54 per cent stake and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) with 12.56 per cent.
India’s biggest lender by assets, State Bank of India (SBI), also owns a 6.42 per cent stake in IL&FS.
(With inputs from Reuters)
