India has a $210 bn bad debt problem and offshore investors smell a chance

Foreign investors see the fledgling market as big opportunity

India’s two-year-old bankruptcy law, which gives creditors more power to restructure troubled companies, is luring more and more offshore investors from as far as Canada to buy the nation’s bad debt.

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, a Canadian pension fund manager, has made $600 million available to Edelweiss Group for investment in local distressed assets, according to R.K. Bansal, an adviser for Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Co. Hong Kong-based SSG Capital Management Ltd. sees more opportunities in such assets, and foreign funds including Oaktree Capital Group LLC and Varde Partners are also keen to participate in the fledgling market.

India’s banking