Aircel became the first victim of the Reserve Bank of India’s zeal to promote bankruptcy law to resolve default cases instead of numerous but complicated restructuring programmes that were holding up revival of companies but let promoters hang on to their broken companies.
The telecom company on Wednesday indicated that the decision by the RBI to do away with the various restructuring schemes triggered its move to file for bankruptcy protection.
Banks with an exposure of Rs 15,500 crore may have to provide for at least 50% losses immediately as per regulatory guidelines. There would be claims from operational creditors and employee which could take the total liabilities above Rs 20,000 crore, said a banker who did not want to be identified. “Lenders will be meeting next week on the Aircel matter.”
Most banks had not classified Aircel as non-performing loan since they had invoked Strategic Debt Restructuring (SDR) in January 2018 which allowed banks to convert a part of their debt into equity and subsequently sell their stake to a new buyer.
However, the fortunes of both banks and the company reversed on February 12 when the RBI decided to do away with all the restructuring schemes such as SDR, Corporate Debt Restructuring and Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A). Banks were also asked to resolve the loan within 180 days of default or refer it to the bankruptcy court.
