Just as a bunch of high-value assets are about to exit India’s fledgling bankruptcy process, it appears founders won’t relinquish control of their steel, power and cement plants without exhausting every last legal trick in the book.
A knot of clumsily crafted eligibility rules introduced by the government in November have become a thorn in the side of bidders like ArcelorMittal.
The idea behind restricting the playing field was to ensure that stressed assets don’t end up with the same business families who choked the state-dominated banking system with $207 billion in bad loans. The net effect may be just the opposite.