Indian lenders may resist Chinese banks’ plan to move RCom debt under IBC

A consortium of Chinese banks have filed a suit against Reliance Communications in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) seeking that the telecom firm's debt resolution should take place under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, sources with direct knowledge of the matter have told CNBC-TV18.

According to various bankers, Chinese lenders account for around 45 percent of the loans to Reliance Communications.

The lenders include China Development Bank, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China and The Export-Import Bank of China.

The company has a debt of Rs 45,000 crore and the lenders are nervous as some of the past resolution efforts have failed to take off, such as a tower sale to Brookfield and merging Aircel with the company.

In the meantime, CNBC-TV18 has learnt from sources that the domestic lenders may resist the NCLT proceedings. The Indian lenders feel that the resolution process has already started outside of NCLT by way of strategic debt restructuring that was invoked on the company a few months back.

The Indian banks want to maintain the status quo until December 28 when the time for converting debt into equity lapses. They fear that if the court admits the Chinese lenders’ case then they will be inevitably pulled into the NCLT procedure.