A year after IL&FS collapse: Debt, destruction and dithering

Ganesh Utsav, Mumbai’s main festival and forerunner of hope for the business community, didn’t bring much cheer to top bosses at India’s biggest infrastructure financier last year. On the eve of the 10-day festival on September 12, the then VC and MD of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS), Hari Sankaran, was busy in meetings with top investment bankers, including Credit Suisse’s India head Mickey Doshi. The meetings came two weeks after IL&FS reported its first default, and predated the sacking of the board, some members of which would later end up in jail.

Unlike in the past, those meetings were not for mandating banks to raise funds, but to sell assets to IL stay afloat. Items on the block included the IL&FS headquarters, a circular building in the heart of Mumbai’s financial district housing corporations such as buyout fund Carlyle. The writing was on the wall. The house was on fire.