Liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya on Friday made an urgent application before the UK High Court seeking access to millions of pounds to cover his living expenses and legal fees from funds held with the Court Funds Office as part of bankruptcy proceedings, initiated by a consortium of Indian banks led by the State Bank of India. Deputy Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Robert Schaffer declined to allow a draw down from the court-held funds of an estimated amount of around 1.5 million pounds, accrued from the sale of Mallya's French luxury property Le Grand Jardin earlier this year, until further arguments in the case. However, he did allow the release of 240,000 pounds plus VAT to cover the legal costs of a substantive hearing in the bankruptcy proceedings scheduled for next Friday.
'I hope the trend is sustainable and that economic activity accelerates going forward.'
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.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Rs 30,600 crore government guarantee for the bad bank has changed the body language of bankers for the better, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
However, financial flows to the economy remained constrained because of decline in the amount of equity finance raised from the capital markets and stress in the NBFC sector, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman pointed out.
Under the watchful eyes of five wise men, who know the industry well, banks will not find it easy to hoodwink the system, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
According to the resolution plan, the airline is planning to start with six to seven aircraft on domestic routes and looking to restart international service within six months of resuming operations.
However, the tribunal rejected the plea by the Netherlands based vendors for filing an intervention application, saying the Dutch district court had no jurisdiction to order bankruptcy of Jet Airways.
Essar group, Bhushan Steel and JSW group likely to be impacted by changes
The NCLAT's order is offensive because it goes against every tenet of bankruptcy reorganisation. If Justice Sudhansu Mukhopadhyay's tenets are accepted by the Supreme Court, we will not only regress in modern bankruptcy reorganisation but also slide back in the Doing Business rankings, says Omkar Goswami.
Close to a million small shareholders have stake in nine NCLT-bound companies
Currently bankers are trying to stave off bankruptcy even as media reports said Etihad Airways, which already owns 24 per cent in the airline, has teamed up with the Hindujas to buy the airline.
Not just mid- and small-sized firms, even big ones will either sell group companies or stakes in their listed entities to tide over crisis; more sell-offs seen in coming months.
The gross bad debt of the Indian banking system as of March was at Rs 7.11 lakh crore
'The full effects of the government initiatives will have to work their way through, whether in infrastructure or in the banking sector.'
Those involved in the discussions say the guidelines for selection of bidders in insolvency cases need to be transparent, otherwise anyone who loses out could take legal recourse, leading to wastage of time and derailing the whole process.
For his first Budget in July 2014, Jaitley inherited a fiscal deficit target of 4.1 per cent of GDP. From 4.1 per cent, the fiscal deficit came down to 3.4 per cent by 2018-19, with two slippages from the budgeted targets, in 2017-18 and 2018-19, the former due to introduction of the GST, says Arup Roychoudhury.
Tamal Bandyopadhyay offers some unsolicited advice for a government wh,ich came to power, with brute majority and the nation's pragmatic chief money man.
Etihad said it declined to lodge an EoI to reinvest in Jet Airways because of unresolved issues concerning the airline's liabilities.
Formula One scrapped all four of this season's races in the Americas due to the COVID-19 pandemic on Friday and added three European rounds, including old favourites Imola and the Nuerburgring, to the calendar. While previously scheduled Grands Prix in Canada, Texas, Mexico and Brazil were cancelled, Formula One said in a statement that Portugal's Portimao will host a race for the first time.
India's goal of self-reliance has been paramount in the policy and practice of the country. The COVID-19 crisis gave us lessons on how to speed up efforts in that direction, he said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday arrested the former CFO and internal auditor of the Cox and Kings Group in connection with its money laundering probe in the Yes Bank alleged loan default case. The agency said ex-chief financial officer Anil Khandelwal and internal auditor Naresh Jain were arrested under the provision of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act
Bankers say debt resolution bills are coming high as resolution professionals are giving the human resources and audit/legal consulting to outside firms to plug all the loopholes.
Experts consider Sebi's takeover code in its present form to be on a par with any foreign code governing public mergers and acquisitions.
The agenda for the year 2020 is well laid out -- launch of UDAY 2.0, installation of smart pre-paid metres, prompt payment by discoms, making coal available for short term and reviving gas based plants. But, it has to ensure effective implementation of various policy tweaks done so far.
A paper authored by Rajan said, state-linked banks can be a first step in altering the ownership structure of some PSBs, where the government brings down its stakes to below 50 per cent, creating distance from operations of banks, and improving governance along the way.
The Economic Survey seems convinced that 2019-2020 saw the bottom of the economic cycle, points out Abheek Barua, chief economist, HDFC Bank.
As NCLAT chair, lack of basic infrastructure remains Justice Mukhopadhaya's biggest challenge. The lack of permanent staff to take down orders in shorthand and later type them out for him to correct is just one among many. In cases where there are a number of intervening parties and applicants, the courtroom is often so jam-packed that even the senior advocates have failed to find place inside.
Among executives who have been approached are former president and CEO of IndiGo Aditya Ghosh, Wolfgang Prock Schauer, current president and Chief Operating Officer at IndiGo and Sanjay Kumar, Chief Strategy and Revenue Officer of IndiGo.
To strengthen corporate governance practices and disclosure requirements, Sebi has notified new rules, including that top 1,000 listed firms will have to formulate a dividend distribution policy. The regulator has also put in place a framework in relation to applicability, constitution and role of the Risk Management Committee (RMC) and eased norms for re-classification of a promoter as a public shareholder, according to a notification dated May 5. In addition, the regulator has asked listed firms to make available audio and video recordings of analyst and investor meets on their websites as well as stock exchanges within 24 hours or before the next trading day and also notified rules regarding Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BSSR).
Till such time that a new governance framework comes into being, the progress of reforms in health, education, land, labour, electricity and agriculture could remain fraught with problems, agitations and delays, observes A K Bhattacharya.
He, however, seemed to indicate that he did give a personal guarantee to India's largest lender SBI, which has moved the NCLT to recover Rs 1,200 crore.
The Lok Sabha session was on Wednesday brought to a sudden end, two days before the scheduled culmination of the session during which the budgetary exercise was the highlight.
The government is also planning to set up specialised Benches for competition law to reduce the burden of the appellate tribunal, which is referred to on all matters from company law and IBC to competition law and the national financial reporting authority.
'The hour is very late, and the choice between triumph and tragedy knocks at our door,' says Ajay Shah.
If the states do not chip in with better governance procedures in the setting up of new businesses, providing electricity connections, enforcing contracts, issuing construction permits or registering property, there is little the Centre can do on its own to quickly move India up the index on ease of doing business, says A K Bhattacharya.
Jet Airways owes more than Rs 8,000 crore to a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India, which now run the airline, while it has a much larger debt pile by way of accumulated losses to the tune of Rs 13,000 crore and vendor dues of over Rs 10,000 crore and salary dues of over Rs 3,000 crore.
The stimulus measures include extension of the 90-day moratorium on recognition of impaired loans to 180 days, in addition to several relaxations in bank lending limits, including allowing banks to fund interest on working capital loans.
Noted banker Uday Kotak said the country's financial system is currently in a Darwinian mode as only the fittest lenders are able to survive. Kotak also said that historically, whenever there has been a problem with a private sector lender, it has been merged with a state-run bank.
Modi said the House did not witness any earthquake, an apparent reference to claims of Rahul Gandhi that his revelation on Rafale would create tremors.
