In the last few years as the Indian Economy registered a slowdown on the other hand, Banks have accumulated high levels of stressed loans due to inadequate credit assessments and monitoring. The increasing trend in the number of stressed loans are emanating from Infrastructure, Power sector, Iron and steel, Textiles, Aviation and Mining which contributes to over half of the total stressed loans.

The current approach to manage loans under stress are to apply short term measures and keep the loan current instead of trying to formulate an end to end solution on revival or recovery. For this to happen it may require a management change, further equity infusion, long term debt restructuring or a hassle-free liquidation and recovery process in place. This would mandatorily involve Promoters Intention and lenders pro-active and timely support to revive the business.

While in the CDR mechanism, the objective was to provide temporary relief to the borrower rather than making active efforts to revive businesses, they have met with limited success in reviving stressed assets due to Inadequate evaluation of business viability and effective monitoring.

Alternatively, banks tried to offload stressed loans to Asset Reconstruction Companies (ARCs) via the security receipts route. However, this option has not been exercised fully by the banks due to the expectation gap in the pricing and returns on Security Receipts (SRs). While ARCs use much higher discount, rates resulting at times in unrealistic valuation, there is no incentive for ARCs to participate in auctions as the reserve price tends to be high. As a result, banks are forced to continue holding these positions until most of their value has deteriorated, resulting in larger losses. With foreign investment in ARCs to 100% being permitted now, we foresee ARCs participating in the long-term revival of borrowers that have a good turnaround potential from merely liquidating assets to recover their dues. This would be possible only if they can estimate sustainable debts, arrange timely capital infusion and carve out core operational businesses from the non-core assets and enable revival.

With the introduction of the insolvency and the bankruptcy code 2016, the Government has paved way to a rational and a quicker method of settling this NPA issue. Though this would be operational in the coming months after clearing implementation challenges, at least, a roadmap seems to have been set up on how a transparent mechanism would work towards settling the NPA’s.

At ASC, our Team helps companies under stress and lenders looking to revive or exit out of Nonperformingassets. Our value proposition is in our technical strength in understanding the customer requirements precisely and delivering to their needs and satisfaction. Our focused teams include a team of highly qualified finance and accounting professionals, forensic experts and industry professionals. ASC India has a wide range of clients across BFSI, Pharma, IT, Ecommerce and Manufacturing sectors from where we draw our experience and learning globally.

Corporate Insolvency
Our services include but are not limited to:

1 Administration
2  Company voluntary arrangement
3  Creditors voluntary liquidation
4  Compulsory liquidation

Insolvency and Bankruptcy Process Management
Our services include but are not limited to:

1 Turnaround and change plans
2  Operational improvement
3  Working capital improvement
4  Liquidity solutions
5  Cost saving
6  Post-merger integration

Personal Insolvency
Our services include but are not limited to:

1 Bankruptcy
2  Creditor advice and support
3  Individual Voluntary Arrangement

Restructuring Advisory
Our services include but are not limited to:

1         Independent Business Review (IBR)
2         Independent solvency review
3        Managed exit
4      Restructuring
5         Corporate streamlining
6         Company-side advisory
7         Debt advisory
8        Stakeholder management
9       Contingency planning
10       Investigations
11       Services to underperforming and financially distressed businesses
12         Advice to lenders, stakeholders and advisors

Restructuring M&A
Our services include but are not limited to:
1        Restructuring M&A
2       Financial stress or distress
3        Disposal option