Cash-strapped Infrastructure Leasing and Finance Services (IL&FS) on Thursday defaulted on Rs 52.43 crore worth of short-term deposits, while the total number of defaults reached seven in last 15 days, Reuters reported. The conglomerate, which is facing liquidity issues, failed to service five bank loans between September 12 and September 26. On September 25, it also failed to service short-term deposit worth Rs 103.53 crore.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will meet with the shareholders of the debt-laden company scheduled on Friday, while the company’s board will meet on Saturday to discuss fundraising plans. Major shareholder LIC recently assured that it would not let the crisis-hit company collapse.
IL&FS has over Rs 91,000 crore in debt and needs capital infusion of Rs 3,000 crore and is planning a Rs 4,500-crore rights issue. The crisis in IL&FS came to light when it defaulted on a short-term loan of Rs 1,000 crore from Sidbi on September 4, while its subsidiary has also defaulted Rs 500 crore dues to the development finance institution.
On September 21, the crisis at the company escalated when CEO Ramesh Bawa resigned, along with four independent directors and a non-executive director. The company also received setback from the Delhi High Court, which restrained its roads arm IL&FS Transportation Networks (ITNL) from selling any of its assets till December 7.
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