IL&FS asset sale plan hangs in the balance
Live MintMumbai: The government’s move to supersede the board of Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd and order a probe has clouded the view as to when the debt-laden lender would be able to proceed with its capital-raising, restructuring and asset monetization plans. IL&FS had already received concrete offers for several of its assets, which include road projects housed under group subsidiary IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd, land parcels held under its various companies and the company’s wastewater treatment facility at Tirupur, the people said. Mint had reported on 31 August that IL&FS was in talks to raise $2 billion from the sale of its assets, with several interested bidders, including I Squared Capital, US-based stressed asset specialist Lone Star Funds and National Infrastructure Investment Fund. “However in the light of current events, it remains to be seen how the new board proceeds with the discussions and as of now meetings related to asset sales have been indefinitely postponed and we are waiting for fresh dates,” said the first person, a managing director with a foreign infrastructure fund that has been engaged in negotiations with IL&FS. “There is a high probability that the talks may have to begin afresh and current process may stand nullified.” “While the asset sale discussions are not entirely new and IL&FS has been in talks with potential buyers in the past few years to deleverage its balance sheet, the current spell of discussions were indeed a concerted effort to raise urgent cash and the buyers have been hopeful of closing deals faster this time” said the second person.