Three years later, India's bankruptcy reform languishes in courts

MUMBAI (Reuters) - When India introduced new bankruptcy resolution rules in 2016, government officials and investors said they expected debt-burdened state-owned banks to clear up some of their bad loans and create a dynamic market in restructured debt.

Ultimately, they said, they hoped the reform would remove an impediment to higher economic growth.

Almost three years later, those hopes have been badly dented. Litigation has tied down some big restructuring deals and bankers are starting to sell bad debts at fire sale prices rather than wait for the system to work better.


That is bad news for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is keen to get banks lending more to stimulate the economy and create more jobs ahead of an election due by May this year.

“The delay (in resolution) definitely affects the diligence and planning effort of financial investors,” said Vijay Padmanabhan, director of KKR & Co. Inc., one of world’s biggest private equity firms which has said it is keen on investing in India’s distressed assets.

Although Padmanabhan said the current bankruptcy process was faster than before, he cautioned that “litigations have to be contained and timelines have to be maintained to generate serious interest amongst financial investors.”

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, introduced in May 2016, allows even small creditors to file insolvency petitions against a company that had defaulted on debt. Once the petition is accepted by a court, a resolution plan has to be decided within 270 days, failing which the company will be liquidated.

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