For many Indian tycoons, 2019 turned woeful as lenders -- empowered by the nation’s recent bankruptcy law and desperate to clean up soured debt from their books -- started seizing assets of delinquent firms or dragged them into insolvency.
Indian banks wrote off a record $39 billion of loans in the 18 months through September in a bid to repair their balance sheets as they battled the world’s worst bad debt pile. Making matters worse, a shadow banking crisis led to a funding squeeze, crushing debt-laden businesses that were critically dependent on rollover financing.
“Life has come a full circle for tycoons that had enjoyed debt-fueled growth,” said Nirmal Gangwal, founder of distress and debt restructuring advisory firm Brescon & Allied Partners LLP. “Many firms collapsed like a house of cards. The downfall was rather unprecedented.”
The government has also been cracking down on economic crime to assuage public anger over absconding businessmen. It’s even barred some from traveling overseas if they were deemed a flight risk.
Here are some of the country’s biggest and most-storied businessmen who saw their fortunes fade. Spokespersons for none of these tycoons, except Essar, immediately replied to emails and text messages seeking comments.
Anil Ambani
The chairman of Reliance Group, which makes movies to metro lines, had a close shave with jail time in March before his elder brother and Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, bailed him out at the last minute. The woes of the ex-billionaire came to the fore when India’s top court asked him to pay Ericsson AB’s India unit about $77 million of past dues or go to jail since Anil Ambani, 60, had given a personal guarantee. His telecom carrier slipped into insolvency this year, while unprofitable Reliance Naval & Engineering Ltd. faced a cash crunch. Reliance Capital Ltd. is selling assets to pare debt. Ambani is also fending off Chinese lenders in a London court.
Malvinder & Shivinder Singh
Karma caught up with ex-billionaires and brothers Malvinder Singh, 47, and Shivinder Singh, 44, and how. Scions of a prominent business family, they once helmed India’s top drug maker and second-largest hospital chain. In October, the two were arrested on charges of fraudulently diverting nearly $337 million from a lender they controlled. India’s market regulator found in 2018 that the brothers had defrauded their hospital company of about $56 million. The collapse of the $2 billion empire turned brother against brother, prompting their mother to broker a peace deal that was short-lived. In February, Malvinder accused Shivinder and their spiritual guru of fraud.
Shashikant & Ravikant Ruia
After a hard-fought battle to keep their flagship steel mill, the first-generation entrepreneurs finally saw the bankrupt Essar Steel India Ltd. pass on to ArcelorMittal last month. The $5.9 billion takeover was almost two years in the making with multiple legal wrangles. The group, controlled by Shashikant Ruia, 76, and Ravikant Ruia, 70, were also reprimanded by a U.K. judge in March this year for concealing documents. Started in 1969 as a construction firm, Essar Group diversified, investing about $18 billion between 2008 and 2012, and piled on debt. In 2017, the group had sold another prized asset, Essar Oil.
Selling an asset to pare a liability shouldn’t be seen as a “lost asset,” an Essar spokesman said, adding that the group remains a diversified conglomerate.
VG Siddhartha
Before jumping off a bridge into a river in July in an apparent suicide, the founder of India’s biggest coffee chain Cafe Coffee Day had penned a letter that spoke of pressure from lenders, a private equity firm and harassment by tax officials. He had spent much of the last two years pledging ever more of Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd. shares to refinance loans for ever shorter periods, at ever higher interest rates. “I would like to say I gave it my all,” V.G. Siddhartha, 60, wrote in the letter. “I fought for a long time but today I gave up.”
Naresh Goyal
The former ticketing agent who built India’s largest airline by value, stepped down as chairman of Jet Airways India Ltd. in March, caving in to pressure from banks who took over the company. Cut-throat price wars and surging costs pushed Jet deeper into loss. The airline stopped flying in April and went into bankruptcy two months later as lenders failed to find a buyer. In July, an Indian court barred Naresh Goyal from flying overseas after the government said it was investigating an alleged $2.6 billion fraud involving Jet Airways.
Rana Kapoor
The founder of Yes Bank Ltd., which became India’s fourth-largest non-state lender, tweeted in September 2018 that his shares were invaluable and requested his children never to sell them upon inheritance. But trouble was brewing. The nation’s banking regulator, which found the lender had repeatedly under-reported its bad loans, refused to extend his tenure as chief executive officer. This forced Rana Kapoor, 62, to step down by end-January. Kapoor, who has pledged some of his Yes Bank shares in July, sold almost his entire stake in the lender by October.
Subhash Chandra
The rice trader-turned-media mogul, 69, who brought cable television into Indian homes in the early 1990s with his ZEE TV, resigned as chairman of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. in November and lost control of his crown jewel. Subhash Chandra has been selling stake in Zee Entertainment in the past few months to repay group’s debt.
Gautam Thapar
A default by Gautam Thapar, founder of the paper mill-to-power transmission Avantha Group, on pledged shares made Yes Bank Ltd. the biggest shareholder in CG Power and Industrial Solutions Ltd. In August, the firm was hit by an accounting scandal forcing the board to remove Thapar, 59, from the chairman’s post. A month later, the market regulator ordered a forensic audit of the firm and barred Thapar from accessing securities market.
Comments
VHP are the most jobless people on earth. If they want to do social service..there are a hundreds of things they can do..and it's a very sad reality that these VHP people who are \so called hindus\" haven't read a page of their Scripture..it is their Hindu scripture that tells them to eat beef and other non veg. This clearly shows their level of knowledge. This is all a drama!because I have met so many hindus (I don't lie because I fear Allah) who eat beef..And even Christians who are no where in this beef issue. And i even know of these SAME NATAK HINDUS WHO PUT A NEW BORN MALE CALF INTO GOBAR GAS TANK BECAUSE THEY THINK MALE CALF ARE OF NO USE."
Is it mr true Indian ?,cmon give me a break. First learn English then advice me..from.which wahabist madrasa you learnt English .first learn the difference between \ leaving \" and \" living \" .then advice .sorry I am not a voter in US .if mr trump wins the election .I will be more happy because he knows how to handle Islamic terrorism wel . I am okay with racial profiling and I never met intolerance in this alien land ."
@Ahmed
When trump kicks u out from usa. What u will do. U r leaving in USA. But ur english is very poor.
@Ahmed fake.
ur usa funding and created terrorists. Shame on u.
Just type hilary clinton and taliban on utube. U will get the answer.
I never tried to divide. I tried to unite.
Pork carries lots of diseases an
Mr True Indian .don't talk like nonsense. I doubt you are an Indian.when we live in multi religious society we must respect others faith. If not becoz bastards like you .society gets divided.I clearly say its becoz of people like you sangh parivar is getting into violence mode .are you aware of cheddis power these days ? Come here and see.no no ...I don't think you will get not even tourist visa with your attitude for USA.whether you accept it or not ..100% sure Mr Modi will bring uniform civil code and we will be in real mess thereafter .so always advice respect other faiths .let's keep religion within home and private and outside let's live like Indians.Hindus take out hides from dead animals .do you know that ?...beef meat means buffalo meat also ....there is no restriction for them to eat it .PFI blocked?,I don't think so. They are having free time becoz of congress govt .moment table turns real problem will crop up. We must never underestimate cheddi log .even though I don't endorse them .its the fact .now they are more powerful than before .we might glorify PFI kfd and CFI .but we must know and predict our future positions.certainly we will have more problems if we allign with wahabist mentality groups in coming days.
Bopanna
But we dont eat. Have u seen a single muslim who ate pork. But i have seen many cheddies who eat beef and pork.
Pork is the only animal on earth which eats his own shit.
Pork eaters are also called as shit eaters. Ru pork's shit eater.
What about serving pork to Muhammad and all of you ,?
chaddis are with a intention to spoil youngsters life.
i/o of doing public welfare.
If one visit beef serving hotel it's real fun to see chaddis enjoying beef
Y don't u guys BAN export of beef which has increased
hahahaha look at one of he guy's comment(mainly we have to destroy bunder), for your kind info couple of years ago BEEF MANDI was under he hands of few hindutva activists, why didnt u destroy then ?
these people give big dialogues about go maathe and all and when they boose they make sure that they have a plate of beef fry.
HYPOCRITES.
Go and tell Modi to stop exporting cow meat.....before start killing innocent human kind....you don't have value and respect towards human kind....heartless creatures....killers of Mahatma Gandhi....
Yes you are right ....................Great result ...finally forced to change the tactics .....after Great resistance from Popular front of India and its allies such as Komu souarda vedike and like minded people and all other 95% Indian Citizens ...these fanatics agreed to change the tactics ...Jai Ho ........
WE CAN DO IT.......5 % Fascists V/S All other Sound Minded . Days are near when these Fanatics are dragged into the prison or to rehabilitation centres .
Vishwa hindu Pakistan
These coward people dont have guts to ban beef in goa.
Kick these vhp to pakistan. Police is not able to catch thogadia. How can they catch dawood.
Sachin Tendulkar’s Ferrari car. Udhav Tackrey’s Mercedes car. Baba Ramdev’s many luxurious car's interior are made from gau mata.
replace their car seat with steel chair.
And many luxurious brands in india like channel louis vuitton burberry gucci etc. most POLTICIANS use it. Are made from gau mata.
First look at ur own family member. Might fallen in love jihad.
How u people will survive without beef with alcohol.
Cheddis are known for their deception
Even after they were caught red handed by their own act of love jihad and cow Stealing, they are giving this shameful statements.. In future we will see this cheddis will be trapped in their deception again..
They think people are still fools accepting what they want .. But I wonder why dont some fools still dont understand this game of deception from the deceivers who learnt their lessons from the greatest deceiver on earth, the zionist... who will dump Indians as well as dump the cheddis with their evil acts...
u cannot stop anything in india, india will be the safest place for all like us.
banning caw slaughtering its just a dream.
for coming 100 or 1000 years, u cannot stop cow slaughtering, its our right we will eat till our death.
yes mainly we have to destroy bunder in this case
Hope at least your new strategy will stop beef export!!!
wow good news. Jai hindu rastra.
Add new comment