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IL&FS Resolves Rs 52,200-Crore Debt In Three Years

IL&FS resolves 86% of the realisable debt in three years.

A pedestrian wearing a scarf to cover her face walks past an Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. (IL&FS) building on a near-empty street in Mumbai, India. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)
A pedestrian wearing a scarf to cover her face walks past an Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. (IL&FS) building on a near-empty street in Mumbai, India. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)

The Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Group has resolved more than half of the Rs 99,000-crore debt that was outstanding when the government-appointed management took over the troubled infrastructure builder and lender in October 2018.

The debt of Rs 52,200 crore addressed till date represents 86% of the overall estimated resolution value of Rs 61,000 crore and 53% of the total debt, IL&FS said in a statement. The group estimates to resolve around Rs 57,000-crore borrowings by March.

Debt worth Rs 14,100 crore has now been fully discharged, which means that either the sale proceeds have been distributed between lenders or the new owner of the asset has taken charge of the debt, Uday Kotak, chairman at IL&FS, told reporters at a briefing on Tuesday. About Rs 16,700 crore in cash is lying with the group and will be soon distributed among lenders, he said.

"We have completed the sale and purchase agreements and are in the final stages of completion in the resolution of Rs 21,000 crore worth of debt," Kotak said.

That includes the resolution of assets such as ONGC Tripura Power Co., IL&FS Prime Terminals FZC and the Warora Chandrapur Ballarpur road project, for which legal approvals for stake sales were received on Tuesday.

Of 347 entities estimated within the IL&FS Group in 2018, 235 entities stand resolved till date, including resolution applications filed with courts. Applications for 15 entities are expected to be filed by March 2022. In all, 97 more entities are expected to be resolved after March 2022.

"The recovery in IL&FS reinforces our belief that a fair amount of money can be recovered from the most difficult cases," Kotak said.