Corporates

Debt defaults by certain group entities of diversified IL&FS have triggered fears of liquidity crisis in the financial markets.

India's Life Insurance Corp Ltd, IL&FS' biggest shareholder with a more than 25% stake, had said that it would participate in the rights issue.

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The Comptroller and Auditor General had flagged the issue of pending payments from the government to Air India in its report in 2016.

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Revealing a three-part strategy, debt-hit Infrastructure Leasing & Finance Services (IL&FS) said on Saturday that it needs to have a successful rights issue to recapitalise itself. In August, IL&FS's board approved a Rs 4,500-crore rights issue and a Rs 3,000-crore debt-reduction plan through asset sales. IL&FS is planning to arrange "liquid allocation to support repayment" till the asset sales cycle begins, said IL&FS Vice Chairman & Managing Director Hari Sankaran said at the annual general meeting (AGM). The three-part strategy of IL&FS includes a successful rights issue, ensuring liquidity remains to repay debtors till assets are sold and the selling of assets to pay back creditors, Mr Sankaran said at the AGM, which was attended by more than two dozen shareholders in Mumbai.

Amid persisting concerns in the markets, the Finance Ministry Friday held a meeting with key shareholders of IL&FS -- LIC, SBI and Central Bank of India -- to discuss the current situation.

Deputy governors NS Vishwanathan and MK Jain met the representatives of LIC and Orix Corporation of Japan, the two largest shareholders which own 25.34 and 23.54 per cent stake in the company.

IL&FS's other major shareholders include Japan's Orix Corp and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, according to the company's website up to the end of the financial year to March 2018.

With the receipt of this amount, all of IL&FS' dues towards LIC Mutual Fund are cleared, the fund house said on Friday.

Speculation mounted before a shareholder meeting on Saturday after a message attributed to brokerage Equirus Securities Pvt. began circulating on WhatsApp, said Bhavin Mehta, an analyst at Dolat Capital Market Ltd.

PNB said the capital infusion by the Centre would be through the preferential allotment of the bank's equity shares at a price determined as per Sebi regulations. The extraordinary general meeting (EGM) for obtaining shareholders' approval in this regard will be held on October 30, PNB said.

Experts believe the government is doing this in a bid to check the fall of the rupee and reduce the current account deficit which is expected to be around 2.8 per cent this year.

The RBI had earlier called a meeting with key shareholders of IL&FS, including Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and State Bank of India, after the company and its subsidiaries defaulted on repayments of various debt instruments.