Is LIC bailing out debt-laden IL&FS?

LIC is taking charge of an unlisted infrastructure behemoth with scores of subsidiaries, the full details of which are not easily available

In what could end up as one of the biggest bailouts in the financial sector, without portraying it as such, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is stepping in to ‘take charge of’ Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS), an unlisted infrastructure behemoth with scores of complex subsidiaries, some of which are listed and a giant load of debt, the full details of which are not easily available in the public domain. It may be recalled that Ajay Piramal, a deal-hungry but astute acquirer, did a due diligence of IL&FS in 2015 but backed out. By then, even insiders felt