"WAY FORWARD FOR STRESSED ASSETS RESOLUTION IN INDIA"

Right after this mature and rich discussion that left attendees with umpteen food for thought, the attendees braced themselves for the meaty panel discussion on 'Way forward for stressed assets resolution in India.'

Dinkar Venkatasubramanian, Partner & Head Restructuring & Turnaround, EY Restructuring LLP moderated the session adeptly.

The panellists included Rahul Chawla, Co-Head, Investment Banking Coverage, Deutsche Bank, Veena Sivaramakrishnan, Partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, Eshwar Karra, CEO, Kotak Special Situations Fund, Avinash Kulkarni, Chief Executive Officer, India Resurgence ARC Pvt, and Anjali Jain, Partner & Head – Insolvency & Corporate Practice, Areness.

The panellists captured their views on relevant angles such as the Evolution of corporate stress resolution over the last 5 years, strengthening the IBC Framework in light of the Parliamentary Committee report, Alternatives to IBC for Stress Resolution, and Role of Distressed Investors.

Dinkar Venkatasubramanian, Executive Vice, Partner & Head Restructuring & Turnaround, Ey Restructuring LLP said "Our context is unique. We had a build-up of NPAs in 2017 imposing a logjam on economic growth. IBC, since it was enacted, has been fantastic in driving these NPAs down to ~7.5% by 2021.

However, the pandemic stress and the sheer volumes of cases needs a multi-pronged approach to stress resolution going forward - involving a change in mindset of lenders, an effective pre-insolvency resolution mechanism, a stronger IBC and an unencumbered flow of private capital." 

"Pre-litigation mediation in IBC legal proceedings is the immediate solution to reduce the workload burden on the insolvency judicial infrastructure." quoted Anjali Jain, Partner, Areness