Satadru Dutta's rise was swift and ambitious. But that journey took a dramatic nosedive on Saturday.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has allowed state-owned Canara Bank and Indian Bank to pursue proceedings against former IL&FS directors, who are not part of the new board, to declare them as wilful defaulter. However, the appellate tribunal said those directors who are part of the new board of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) and its various subsidiaries after October 1, 2018, would remain protected.
The debt-ridden IL&FS group has discharged Rs 45,281 crore to its creditors as of March 2025, completing the resolution of its 197 entities, according to the latest status report affidavit filed before the insolvency appellate tribunal NCLAT. This is 18.9 per cent higher than Rs 38,082 crore, the amount of debt that stood resolved from the last status report filed by IL&FS six months before on October 28, 2024.
'Investing in these funds makes sense if their net yield over better-quality funds -- corporate bond funds or banking and PSU funds -- is meaningful.'
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax (I-T) Department are likely to join the Assam Police in investigating alleged organised financial crimes and acquisition of benami properties by event manager Shyamkanu Mahanta, an accused in the death of Assam's cultural icon Zubeen Garg.
IL&FS group has discharged debt of Rs 38,082 crore to its creditors as of September 30, 2024, according to the latest status report affidavit filed by the debt-ridden firm before insolvency appellate tribunal NCLAT. "As on September 30, 2024, the total debt discharged to creditors of the Respondent No 1 (IL&FS) Group aggregates to Rs 38,082 crore," the status report said. This includes Rs 20,289 crore from monetisation of assets, Rs 8,140 crore from auto-debits, green entity principal servicing, NFB release and Rs 9,653 crore from interim distribution.
Only a limited set of investors should invest directly in corporate bonds.
The 61-year-old MLA from Islampur seat of Maharashtra has been asked to depose before the federal agency in Mumbai on Friday, they said. Patil, a former minister of home and finance, is also the Maharashtra president of the NCP and is a seven-term legislator.
The board will first need to unpack IL&FS - it has 169 group companies with 24 direct subsidiaries, 135 indirect subsidiaries, six joint ventures and four associate companies, says Amit Tondon.
The ED carried out searches against two former auditor firms of IL&FS -- BSR and Associates and Deloitte Haskins and Sells -- on Wednesday in connection with its money-laundering probe into alleged financial irregularities at the infrastructure development and finance company, official sources said. The premises linked to the two auditors in Mumbai were searched under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they added. The action came a week after the Supreme Court set aside a Bombay High Court verdict that quashed an SFIO probe against the two companies, both former auditors of IL&FS Financial Services, paving the way for action against them under the Companies Act and allowing the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to take forward its enquiry against them.
JM Financial Consultants, Arpwood Capital and Alvarez & Marsal will advise the board going forward
Rejecting the contention of the auditors and others that they cannot be treated as part of the management, which is responsible for managing the affairs of the company and therefore should not be charged as per the said section, the NCLAT said that rules of natural justice are to be followed.
Maharashtra Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Jayant Patil appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Mumbai on Monday in a money laundering case linked to alleged financial irregularities in the now bankrupt financial services firm Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited (IL&FS), an official said.
The government has reshuffled the board of IL&FS Ltd, which is undergoing debt resolution process, with existing board member C S Rajan being redesignated as the non-executive chairman. Nand Kishore, who was serving as an executive director, has been made the managing director, according to the company. In the wake of financial misdoings coming to light, the corporate affairs ministry had superseded the board of IL&FS in October 2018.
Deloitte had challenged the jurisdiction of the NCLT to ban it, saying section 140(5) of the Companies Act pertains to auditors who are still auditing the company in question while it has already resigned from the service and thus cannot be banned under the given provisions.
About 24 fund houses saw a decline in their debt AUMs in the past one year.
In a soon to be published book, 'Of Counsel: The Challenges of the Modi-Jaitley Economy,' former chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian says though RBI has a good reputation, it does not mean it's always right, as for years, the RBI was unable to grasp the seriousness of the loan repayment problems or identify the prolonged frauds of Nirav Modi and the likes.
The infra-major going belly up cracked open some major flaws in the system - the most evident being weak corporate governance and how layers of corporate structures could be formed adding to the opaqueness of the group.
But it does not mention its views on the government demand to ban these two auditors for five years from business.
IL&FS group would resolve debt of Rs 55,000 crore by March 2022, the board of the crisis-hit company has stated in its affidavit filed before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT). While updating the progress of the resolution progress, the IL&FS board, led by Uday Kotak, said Rs 55,000 crore debt would be resolved through asset monetisation, restructuring and insolvency proceeding initiatives. Some of this has already been completed while the rest is at different stages of resolution, it said in a brief snapshot on the progress made in the ongoing resolution process till December 7, 2021, and suggested estimates of progress to be made by March 2022.
For non-banks, the IL&FS crisis was nothing short of India's Lehman moment, which has for a foreseeable future reset the sector on multiple grounds.
Joint MD of the company Arun K Saha and MD of transportation network K Ramchand were arrested late evening in Mumbai under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Perhaps the way forward could be the introduction of uniform rating standards - on the lines of accounting standards for the accounting profession - with a separate regulating authority for enforcing those standards, says Sudipto Dey.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal has directed the new board of the debt-ridden IL&FS Group to distribute Rs 16,361 crore of cash and InvIT units available across the Group to its creditors on pro-rata basis. The interim distribution award of Rs 16,361 crore includes Rs 11,296 crore in cash and Rs 5,065 crore in InvIT units (Infrastructure Investment Trusts) and a majority of this is to be distributed to the creditors of three large group firms -- IL&FS, IFIN and ITNL. "The interim distribution shall be confined only to the entities as reflected in Annexure-6 except those excluded and for the amount of Rs 16,361 crores i.e Rs 11,296 crore of cash and Rs 5,065 crores of InvIT Units," said an order by a two-member NCLAT bench headed by Chairperson Justice Ashok Bhushan.
What ex-IL&FS top brass got for loans? Foreign trips, private jets and chopper rides.
Sources said Sankaran has been arrested on the grounds of abusing his powers in IL&FS Financial Services Ltd through fraudulent conduct and in granting loans to entities that were not credit-worthy or were declared as non-performing accounts.
In three separate but similarly-worded orders, Sebi said the default by IL&FS occurred due to "lethargic indifference and needless procrastination and laxity" of the rating agencies.
Alvarez & Marsal will develop a detailed restructuring plan for the group to demonstrate to shareholders and lenders that it was self-sufficient in repaying its liabilities. So far, the IL&FS management had been working on its revival plan.
The auditors -- the local arms of the Big Four global firms Deloitte Haskins & Sells and KPMG which has BSR & Associates as an affiliate here-had challenged the jurisdiction of the NCLT to ban them.
They have also been accused of extending loans for criminal intent of falsification of repayment by a number of borrowers, including some entities associated with large corporate groups.
Under the plan, the government has categorised IL&FS group companies into green, amber and red based on their respective financial positions.
Bankrupt Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) has sold the entire stake in the waste management arm IL&FS Environmental Infrastructure & Services (IEISL) and its subsidiaries to EverEnviro Resource Management (EverEnviro), an arm of the PE major Everstone Group, the companies said in separate statements. Though the value of the deal was not specifically disclosed, the crippled IL&FS -- which is under bankruptcy proceedings in NCLT -- said the sale will reduce its overall debt by Rs 1,200 crore, which is the combined debt of entities under the group's environment businesses. IL&FS Environmental Infrastructure & Services (IEISL) is one of the leading integrated waste management companies that is into municipal solid waste management apart from presence across various segments including construction and demolition, collection and transportation and waste to energy and currently manages over 8,400 tonnes per day solid municipal waste.
A tribunal consented with the decision of the newly constituted board of the IL&FS and observed that the initiation of bankruptcy proceedings was the best option for the two firms.
In the case of Satyam Computer Services, L&T had acquired 8 per cent stake after the company's founder B Ramalinga Raju admitted to fraud, and had demanded representation on the company's board. The plea, however, did not find support. The promoters of Maytas had pledged shares with the two institutions and Sicom to raise funds.
The financial services sector, including NBFCs and housing finance companies (HFCs), have historically been the largest borrowers from MFs.
Given that there are hundreds of players in the shadow banking space, it's hard to make a credible estimate of potential NPAs. That creates more scope for panic, says Devangshu Datta.
The general nervousness because of the IL&FS default will prevail in the system for now.
Second-tier NBFC stocks are trading at 24.4x their trailing earnings, which is nearly twice their 15-year average of 13.9x
The first tranche was raised a few weeks ago and the company was looking to raise more if needed.
The corporate affairs ministry proposed the names of Borkar & Mazumdar & Co and MM Chitale & Co for IL&FS and IFIN respectively; and GM Kapadia & Co and CNK & Associates for IL&FS Transportation Networks.