How Indian Credit Raters Missed an Epic Fail at a Financier
- IL&FS defaults cast uncertainty over Indian financial system
- Big corporate bond issuer enjoyed high ratings in early 2018
Photographer: ABHIJIT BHATLEKAR/Bloomberg
This article is for subscribers only.
Indian authorities have spent the week containing the collateral damage from a major infrastructure lender struggling to service $12.6 billion in debt. Next up: Figuring out why the nation’s credit rating agencies didn’t see the crisis coming.
IL&FS Group is a vast conglomerate with a complex corporate structure that funds infrastructure projects across the world’s fastest-growing major economy. The financier, set up in 1987, and its listed subsidiaries have powered India’s infrastructure boom-- including the Chenani-Nashri road tunnel, India’s longest--and raised billions of dollars from the country’s corporate debt market.