IL&FS appoints Alvarez and Marsal as specialist agency to develop debt restructuring plan

Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) has appointed Alvarez and Marsal as their specialist agency to develop a comprehensive debt restructuring plan to repay its liabilities.

Alvarez and Marsal is a debt restructuring and turnaround specialist firm.

This was decided at the most-awaited board meeting of the debt-strapped infrastructure lender.

"In the meeting of the IL&FS board of directors on September 29, we took four important decisions," said Hari Sankaran, IL&FS VC and MD in a video statement.

"One, we will develop a comprehensive detailed plan for restructuring of the group in order to be able to demonstrate to the creditors and the shareholders that the intrinsic value of the group was sufficient in repaying its bad liabilities," he said.

"Two, we agreed to appoint a specialist agency to take this place forward. It will develop the plan, seek approvals of the board as well as all stakeholders and then proceed to implement it," Sankaran said.

In the Annual General Meeting (AGM) earlier in the day, the company passed a resolution to raise capital through rights issue worth about Rs 4,500 crore, approach National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for asset sale resolution and get liquidity to repay debtors.

“In today’s Annual General Meeting at IL&FS, we addressed several of the issues that have been concerning our shareholders,” Sankaran said, adding that these issues "revolve around how they can restore normalcy to our operations".

While State Bank of India (SBI) has refused to facilitate any further credit line of the Rs 3,500 crore sought by IL&FS, it is likely to participate in the rights issue.

Largest shareholder Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and ORIX Corporation are also expected to invest in the Rs 4,500-crore rights issue.

“In the next 45 days, IL&FS is looking to take legal opinion on asset sale as one of the creditors has approached court and got a stay on sale of assets,” a shareholder confirmed.

In the balance two plans after the board meeting, Sankaran pointed out that apart from the continued efforts for asset monetisation plan, the group will continue to seek moratorium that they "require to detail out those plans in a manner in which we can satisfy creditors and shareholders with its capacity to device debt and equity".