ILFS - the height of crony capitalism

Per a moneylife report, ILFS used its flamboyant, high-spending ways to build deep contacts with bureaucrats in all state governments. It had dozens of IAS officers on its payroll and also doled out favours like houses/apartments for politically connected persons (PCPs), facilitating admission of their children to Ivy League universities abroad and other benefits.

The bureaucracy enjoyed its lavish spending ways; it didn’t matter that the costs were passed on to the project and borne by the public. IL&FS brought project development and fund raising ability to the table, for which it extracted hefty fees, based on the project cost. So, every cost escalation only worked to its benefit.

It also cultivated banks and other lenders assiduously. It lists over 40 domestic and international banks as lenders, apart from selling its financial paper across the spectrum. It has even managed to sell its debt to nationalised banks at a profit!

Some Examples of the Plunder
1. Noida Toll Bridge Company Ltd: This controversial company had given itself an assured return of over 20% (higher than its borrowing cost) which soared to 40% when its high-cost loans were renegotiated to 10% and the concession period dramatically extended from 30 years to 100 years. It was also given 30 acres of government land as a sweetener which it sold at a profit. No cost reduction was passed on to the toll-paying public. Instead, it was structured to ensure that the initial shortfall in toll collection was added to the project cost. This led to a 12 times cost escalation -- from Rs408 crore in early 2000 to over Rs5,000 crore when it was eventually scrapped by the courts.

2. Tamil Nadu Road Development Company (TNRDC): This SPV was a 50:50 joint venture between IL&FS and the Tamil Nadu government (TNGov). It implemented the Rs205 crore IT corridor road project and east coast road-widening project.

While both were equal equity partners, the subordinate loan of Rs41 crore from IL&FS earned a 15% return while the state provided an interest-free grant of Rs34 crore. This became the subject of a book—Evolution of IT Corridor by K Malmarugan and Sabina Narayan which exposes how IL&FS structures its deals.

In that project, says the book, TNGov got back Rs2 lakh on its Rs44 crore investment in the first seven years, while IL&FS got back Rs91.3 crore on its investment of Rs69.6 crore. It also sold its senior debt at a profit to Punjab National Bank and earned a 4% management fee.

Further, TNRDC was assigned a 4.9-acre plot at Rs1 crore which now has a market value of Rs50 crore, say sources. In this case, TNGov realised how it was being duped and ousted Ravi Parthasarathy as chairman of TNRDC. It also bought out IL&FS’s stake and converted it into a 100% government company.

3. Tirupur Water Project: The Tirupur water project, to privatise water supply and make it available to the wealthy, hosiery-exporting town, was conceived by IL&FS in the mid-1990s and remains mired in litigation. The allegations, again, are fat fees charged by IL&FS and false promises to investors.

Just one sentence from a hard-hitting, 2014 order by Justice V Ramasubramanian (also quoted above) encapsulates all that is wrong with this project: “The Government has pumped in money, unfortunately, only to service the debt with a pre-condition that the money will not even be used to improve the infrastructure. Investing more money just for the purpose of servicing a debt, is neither a prudent business decision nor in the interest of the public.”

A top source in TNGov says there is an unwritten understanding in the state not to do business with IL&FS anymore. Did this never reach the ears of the former finance minister, who was from Tamil Nadu? You can draw your own conclusions.

GIFT City Gujarat: The Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, again structured as a 50:50 joint venture with the Gujarat government, was extraordinary in that the head of its audit committee filed a litigation against the project in 2016. The petition, by Dr DC Anjaria, alleged that this massive, Rs70,000-crore project had been virtually gifted away to IL&FS, leading to massive losses to the state government and the people.

Here, too, IL&FS has extorted high fees. It got the land valued at Rs2/acre at a nominal price translating to a giveaway of Rs440 crore to IL&FS, says Dr Anjaria. This also has an expensive, ongoing arbitration with the original contractor consortium headed by Fairwood, with large claims and counter-claims on both sides.

Gift City has been a favourite project of prime minister Narendra Modi; but not a word about it was in the public domain until I wrote about in August this year, just before IL&FS began to default on payments.

There are similar issues with IL&FS’s ventures with the Rajasthan government, with the power project at Cuddalore and many others. But the most chilling one I have heard so far is a joint venture with RAHI Aviation to build airports at Gulbarga and Shimoga.

When things turned sour, IL&FS accused the promoter of RAHI Aviation of forgery, and worse, and got him arrested. It ensured that he remained in Arthur Road jail (Mumbai) for six months by piling on more charges. As a direct result of that fight, the project has been taken over by the Karnataka government, which also invoked bank guarantees of Rs20+ crore.

The details of what happened are the subject of a separate article; but IL&FS, which has now caused a systemic issue, lost the project and an investment of over Rs40 crore without anyone being held responsible.

Well, it is time we woke up and started asking questions and ensure that this deliberately created mess is not foisted on public sector institutions and, eventually, on the people of India. more