INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
to the Chinese, but to local public-private partnerships led by ILFS
However, in many instances, only the returns became private
Risks remained with the public.
Those risks have now come back to bite
ILFS and its associates have $12.5 billion in debt, of which $500 million is due over the next six months
The group has only $27 million of liquidity at hand, sparking a debt-repayment crisis that threatens to engulf Indian banks and mutual funds
to insurance and pension funds
Chairman Ravi Parthasarathy, paid $3.65 million last fiscal year, left abruptly in July after being with the company since its
inception.
When I first encountered it, the five-year-old ILFS was barely getting started with what would become its unique model: a
financier that also conceived, executed and owned large projects
connecting expressway across the river Yamuna
The ILFS-controlled Noida Toll Bridge Co
opened a gleaming eight-lane motorway nine years later
guaranteeing 20 per cent returns to equity investors including ILFS
When the Delhi and Noida governments gave the land, they had expected the expressway to be returned to them in 30 years
In 2008, though, it looked like the asset was going to be in private hands for at least 70 years
In 2016, a court called out the daylight robbery and ordered the toll plazas to be dismantled
state government lease land at throwaway prices to an ILFS-controlled company
engineering and architectural services vendor appointed by ILFS not fulfilling its obligations or returning money paid.
I could go on
Foreign investors, as well as locals such as Life Insurance Corp
of India, and Mahindra Mahindra Ltd., joined ILFS as equity partners in a socially worthwhile and economically necessary water treatment
plant in Tirupur, a textile town in Tamil Nadu
parent is beyond stock market scrutiny
The same state-run insurer will probably have to rescue it now
On Saturday, ILFS changed its chairman once again.
Were ILFS a Chinese company in a developing country, there would be an uproar by now
about exploitative contracts, and the trail of waste left in their wake
As a young intern in Delhi 25 years ago, when I yearned for a quick passage across the river, I had no idea the bridge to a better life
would one day extract such a heavy toll.
