India firms sought 126 debt recast in 2012
In a growing sign of companies facing difficulties in meeting their financial obligations, banks were approached for debt restructuring in a record 126 cases during 2012 for a collective amount of Rs 84,000 crore (over $15 billion).
During the last quarter ended December 31, 2012 itself, a total number of 25 cases were referred for Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) for an aggregate amount of over Rs 20,000 crore, shows the data available with the CDR cell of bankers.
RBI had helped set up CDR system in 2001 to help the corporates facing financial difficulties due to "factors beyond their control and due to certain internal reasons.”
High interest costs, along with overall sluggishness in domestic and global economies have made it difficult for the companies to meet their debt obligations, which in turn, has resulted in a spurt in CDR cases.
According to the latest data, 126 cases involving debt of Rs 84,000 crore were referred for restructuring during 2012. During the year, as many as 86 cases were approved for restructuring of debt worth about Rs 70,000 crore.
At the end of 2012, 50 cases involving Rs 23,000 crore were pending for consideration under CDR mechanism.
During the October-December quarter of 2012, a total of 26 CDR requests involving Rs 15,000 crore were rejected.