RCom, Suzlon And Jaypee Among Dozens Of Defaults Disclosed As SEBI Deadline Ends

At least 49 listed companies, including insolvency-hit Reliance Communication Ltd., Jaypee Infratech Ltd., Religare Enterprises Ltd., Hindustan Construction Company Ltd. and Suzlon Energy Ltd. reported debt defaults in keeping with the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s tighter disclosure norms.

Data of 49 disclosures to the stock exchange compiled by BloombergQuint showed that these firms had defaulted on outstanding debt worth Rs 69,140 crore as of Dec. 31, 2019. These firms’ total indebtedness stood at Rs 3.66 lakh crore.

The market regulator had in November tightened the disclosure norms for all listed companies. In case of default beyond 30 days, listed companies were asked to disclose the failure to repay within 24 hours of the 30th day. Tuesday was the deadline for making these disclosures.

The biggest defaulter among the lot was Anil Ambani’s struggling telecom unit RCom—its default amount stood at Rs 28,825 crore. The company is currently going through the corporate insolvency resolution process under the supervision of the Mumbai-bench of National Company Law Tribunal.

The second-highest defaulter, too, was an Anil Ambani firm, Reliance Naval & Engineering Ltd. Its default amount was Rs 9,492 crore.

Among other top defaulters were Suzlon Energy with Rs 7,256 crore, Jaypee Infratech Ltd. with Rs 6,721 crore and ISMT Ltd. with Rs 3,237.8 crore.