Is it true that IL&FS is likely to defray a substantial part of its debt by March this year?
Answer
Answer
IL&FS group has filed an information affidavit with NCLAT that it will resolve debt to the tune of Rs.55,000 crore by March 2022. This is still only a part of the overall debt of Rs.99,355 crore that IL&FS was saddled with at the time of going bust in late 2018,. The new board of IL&FS under the leadership of Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra Bank, has been driving the fund raising and asset monetization effort in order to repay debts.
The repayment is worked out via a mix of asset monetisation, restructuring and insolvency proceeding initiatives. The milestone payment of Rs.55,000 crore of debt resolution was to be achieved much earlier. However, due to the pressures of the pandemic, this target milestone had to be repeatedly postponed. One thing is certain that even after this huge effort, there will be a big haircut that bankers and lenders will have to take.