Debtwire Radio

Debtwire talks with 20+ year Asian banking veteran Rahul Chawla, currently Deutsche Bank’s head of global markets and credit trading in India, about the opportunities and challenges in investing in distressed assets there, particularly ahead of Supreme Court's ruling on the sanctity of the seniority waterfall. India for past few years has been the leading Asia Pacific market for distresses asset investing, following the introduction in late 2016 of the rigorous time-bound Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code. Like all major new legal regimes, the code has had it teething pains—the most painful being the two-year old ongoing Essar Steel India process. That case is awaiting a final ruling from the Supreme Court on whether the financial creditor-approved plan need to be revised to share more of the recovery proceeds with junior, largely operational creditors.