72 luxury cars bought by debt-laden IL&FS to go under the hammer soon; asset sale continues amid rising defaults

As many as 72 luxury cars, most of them luxury models of Jaguar and Audi brands, allegedly purchased by the previous board of the debt-laden Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) will go under the hammer soon, said media reports.The Uday Kotak-led board appointed by the government at IL&FS Group will auction the fleet of luxury cars. The debt-laden company will issue advertisements initiating the bidding process. Considering the base model of Jaguar and Audi vehicles are priced at about Rs 40 lakh and above, the expenditure on 72 of these high-end vehicles works out to at least Rs 28.80 crore, said a report in The Financial Express.[caption id="attachment_5251861" align="alignleft" width="380"]

Representational image. Reuters.[/caption]IL&FS, which is sitting on a debt of over Rs 94,200 crore, and its subsidiaries have been defaulting on debt payments, including short-term repayments, many times so far.The cash-strapped infrastructure lender had on 28 November said that it initiated a process to sell controlling stake in the renewal energy business as part of reducing the rising debt pile.The renewable assets of the group include operating wind power plants with an aggregate capacity of 873.5-mw, and under-construction wind power plants with 104 mw capacity. It also includes the solar power business, under which it has around 300-mw of under-construction projects."The board initiated a process of exploring selling controlling stakes held by IL&FS Group in renewable energy assets," the company said in a statement.Earlier, IL&FS had announced plans to divest its stake in IL&FS Securities Services and ISSL Settlement & Transaction Services, for which it claimed to have received interest from over dozen entities, including banks, PE funds and other financial services firms.The newly-formed board of IL&FS had on 13 November informed the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) that it had drawn up a new roadmap to address concerns of lenders.Senior advocate Ramji Srinivasan appearing for IL&FS informed the two-member bench of the tribunal that the draft proposal has already been submitted before the Mumbai bench of the NCLT and sought its permission to place before it.— With PTI inputs