IL&FS Group companies count stands at a whopping 348!

More skeletons are popping out of the IL&FS balance sheet. Turns out that the group has 348 subsidiaries, more than twice the figure of 169 disclosed by the company previously.

"There are 348 entities in the group, significantly larger than we expected. So it is big task," Chairman of the new board Uday Kotak told reporters on October 4. "The first objective is to work towards a comprehensive roadmap on the way forward…we have listed down about 3-4 alternatives available to us as the next steps."

"Keep in mind, for us to be able to assess, obviously we will look at the larger companies first, to be able to have a view on a whole maze of 348 entities is something which is more than double of what was the earlier assessment of the number of entitites," Kotak added.

The emergence of additional IL&FS entities could pose further challenges for the board.

"This came to our knowledge after the presentation given to us in today's meeting. The company's debt level may also increase after the addition of new companies," a board member said.

Board member Vineet Nayyar, who revived Tech Mahindra after the Satyam scam and founding chairman of GAIL, is nominated to be the vice chairman and managing director subject to the approval of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).The Board elected Kotak as the non-executive Chairman.  The Board further reconstituted the four statutory committees, being the Audit Committee, Nomination and Remuneration Committee, Stakeholder Relationship Committee and Corporate Social Responsibility Committee, and appointed its members.

Talking about the debt situation, which stands at about Rs 91,000 crore as on March 2018, Kotak suggested the debt levels could increase from here on.

"There are secured, unsecured bonds, commercial papers, markets are moving and there are many contingent liabilities which can become real liabilities," Kotak said.

Without giving details of the immediate debt repayments, he said this is obviously a challenge.

" After today's meeting, we have a sense of broadly in what direction we need to go forward," he said.

Talking about the complexity, Nayyar said Satyam and IL&FS are like "chalk and cheese".

"In case of Satyam, it was a simple case of felony...Here, I think there is complexity.There is no evidence of any sort of felony so far.

"On the other hand putting it back on feet will require efforts and therefore you may not have such a clear cut solution...The complexity is at multiple levels. I, at least, hope we can come out with a solution," he added.