Banks Begin Informal Talks On Dealing With Supreme Court's Rulings Which Threaten Over $6 Billion In Loans

A bunch of the biggest Indian banks are said to have begun informal talks to deal with the fall-outs of the two recent Supreme Court rulings which threaten the repayment of loans staggering to a total amount of nearly $6.73 billion, reports Economic Times.

The concerns of the banks come on account of how the recent rulings by the top court are likely to impact the survival of modern retail behemoth Future Retail and telecom major Vodafone Idea.

In one of the two rulings, the Supreme Court had recently rejected a petition to allow telecom companies to approach the Department of Telecommunications to review outstanding dues in a long-running dispute with Indian telecom players. This is likely to cause significant risk to Vodafone Idea's survival which would put at risk $4.4 billion which the company owes to banks.

Vodafone Idea's top lenders include Yes Bank, IDFC First Bank and IndusInd Bank, as well as other private and state-owned lenders.

In another one, the Supreme Court had effectively blocked Kishore Biyani-led Future Group's $3.4 billion sale of its retail assets to Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Limited's subsidiary unit Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL), placing at risk nearly $2.69 billion that the retail conglomerate owes to the Indian banks.

Future Retail's major lenders include State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India and several others.