Triple Default By Jaiprakash Associates

In the last ten days infrastructure company Jaiprakash Associates Ltd. defaulted on interest payments due on three different series of debentures.

On May 4, the company informed the stock exchange that “the interest installment in respect of 12.40 percent non-convertible debentures (NCDs)...remains unpaid for more than three months as on May 04, 2017.”

The company filing did not disclose the outstanding amount on which it defaulted.

On April 26, the debt-laden company said in a stock exchange filing that it failed to pay principal and interest due in respect of the 11.75 percent NCDs and interest due in respect of the 12 percent NCDs for more than three months.

Here too no disclosure has been made regarding the default amounts involved.

The total amount outstanding, including interest and repayment, on the two debenture issues was Rs 733 crore as on March 31, 2016, as per the company's annual report.

On March 31, 2017 the company disclosed an interest payment default on the 10.5 percent NCDs, for more than three months.

On March 8, its effort to reschedule outstanding amounts of Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs) was pending approval by all the bondholders. In the same filing the company said that a proposal to realign remaining debt of the company after the sale of cement plants to UltraTech Cement Ltd. was pending approval by lenders.

It informed of similar defaults on the 11.8 percent NCDs in February and the 11.9 percent NCDs in November.

As of March 31, 2016 Jaiprakash Associates had an outstanding debt worth Rs 2,713.33 crore on account of NCDs, according to its annual report.

Over the last two years Jaiprakash Associates has been on an asset selling spree in order to repay its lenders. It also underwent Strategic Debt Restructuring in which lenders converted some debt into equity. But deal delays have forced some banks to recognise loans to the company as bad assets.

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