New board to consider all options to revive India's IL&FS (updated)

IL&FS Investment Managers

04/10/2018 16:47

(Adds details, quotes)
    By Promit Mukherjee and Krishna V Kurup
    MUMBAI/BENGALURU, Oct 4 (Reuters) - India's Infrastructure
Leasing & Financial Services  ILFSL.UL  (IL&FS), a debt-laden
infrastructure financing and construction company, will consider
all available options to revive the firm, its new non-executive
chairman said on Thursday.
    The new board of IL&FS does not underestimate the challenge,
Uday Kotak told reporters. 
    The government replaced the company's entire board on Monday
after recent defaults on some of its debt obligations triggered
declines in stock and debt markets, leading to concerns about
broader risk in the country's financial sector.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1WH20Z
    "We have listed down various options available to us as the
next steps," said Kotak, who is also the managing director of
Kotak Mahindra Bank  KTKM.NS .
    "Depending on the various assessment of facts, we will be
able to take a view on which of the roads to take and there are
two or three or four options clearly available with us and you
will see them unfold over the new few days and weeks," he said.
    It would take time to revive the company and the new board
would try to ensure a fair value for the assets of IL&FS, Kotak
said.  
    The new board was made aware that there are 348 entities of
the IL&FS group, which underscores the task at hand, Kotak said.
    The board also appointed Vineet Nayyar, a former civil
servant with a reputation for turning companies around, as its
managing director.
    Nayyar, currently executive vice-chairman of Tech Mahindra,
helped revive failed computer services company Satyam, also
following government intervention.
    The Mahindra group acquired Satyam in 2009.
    Nayyar was also the founding chairman of the state-run gas
firm GAIL India Ltd  GAIL.NS .
    

 (Additional reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj in NEW DELHI; Writing
by Sudarshan Varadhan
Edited by Martin Howell and David Evans)
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