The New Indian Express, PTI, MUMBAI: Bankers today explored various options including conversion of the Rs 18,000 crore loans to SLR as part of the debt restructuring of the ailing Air India carrier and may finalise the bailout package next week. "We are looking at various instruments like SLR, long-term bonds and non-convertible debentures among others as part of the debt recast plan of Air India," Oriental Bank of Commerce Executive Director S C Sinha told reporters after the debt recast meeting here. Conversion of loans to Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR), which are considered as approved security for investment, will
provide comfort to the lenders. The two-hour meeting was attended by officials from 14 banks including consortium leader SBI, Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Central Bank of India, and OBC. Sinha also said that bankers would submit their final proposal to SBI Capital Markets, who is advisor to the Air India, by Saturday for a final decision. "We are yet to arrive on a final decision. We will submit our proposal to SBI Caps by Saturday and again meet sometime next week to take a final call," he added. Earlier this week, the lenders had rejected a proposal of cumulative redeemable preference shares (CRPS) by the Air India,+ fearing that it could bring down bottomline of banks. In New Delhi, SBI chief Pratip Chaudhuri said that "Air India is central government owned airlines. Any lenders comfort with Air India is complete and absolute". The government has asked the lenders to finalise the decision on Air India debt recast ahead of the meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on January 31.Source: The New Indian Express
