The Supreme Court on Tuesday endorsed the Bombay High Court's decision to put on hold Its Judgment quashing prosecution launched by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) against former auditors of scam-tainted IL&FS—BSR & Associates (a KPMG-afflliated firm) and Deloitte Haskins and Sells. A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices M R Shah and A S Bopanna entertained an appeal filed by the Centre challenging the Bombay HC's April 21 judgment quashing prosecution against the two auditing firms, which were earlier associated with IL&FS. The bench agreed to continue the HC's decision to stay its own Judgment for eight weeks and protected the auditors and their employees against any coercive action till further orders.

DEBT-RIDDEN and scandal-hit shadow banking group IL&FS has completed the sale of a 50 per cent stake in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) to the Gujarat government. The deal will generate a paltry Rs 32 crore in equity value, but will result in a Rs 1,200 crore-odd deduction in IL&FS' consolidated debt. "This development represents another key milestone in the overall resolution for the IL&FS group under the new board. As part of the overall resolution plan to address a significant portion of the Group's debt, the sale of a number of other Group assets are currently in various stages of progress," the group said in a release on Monday.

DEBT-LADEN IL&FS on Monday said it has completed the sale of its 50% stake in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) to the Gujarat government, generating over Rs 32 crore for its equity value and also reducing its consolidated debt by more than Rs 1,200 crore. The stake in GIFT City was bought by Gujarat Urban Development Company (GUDCL), on behalf of the Gujarat government.

Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS), which has a bad debt burden of over Rs 1 trillion, on Monday completed the sale of its 50% stake in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Co. Ltd (GIFTCL) to the Gujarat government, represented by the Gujarat Urban Development Co., or GUDCL. IL&FS has received Rs 32.71 crore as equity value for the shares. The sale will additionally reduce its consolidated debt by over Rs 1,230 crore, IL&FS said in a press release.

BARELY three months before IL&FS Group companies ran into trouble with the first default on August 28,2018, SRBC & Co LLC (an arm of Ernst and Young), auditor to IL&FS Transportation Networks India Limited (ITNL), decided to exclude notes on the company's ability to continue operations indefinitely, which in accounting language is referred to as a going concern principle. According to the Grant Thornton forensic audit report, SRBC & Co LLC had earlier taken a decision to make such qualifications in its audit report for 2017-18. But following a meeting with IL&FS and ITNL management, it did not include this in the Emphasis of Matter (EoM) paragraph. If an auditor decides it is important to draw the attention of the readers of financial statements to a particular item, it points out the issue in an EoM paragraph in the audit report.

In the last week of May, the National Company Law Tribunal approved the sale of once-upon-a-time infrastructure development catalyst Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services' (IL&FS') stake in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Company Ltd, popularly known as Gift City, to the Gujarat Urban Development Company Ltd, a state enterprise. IL&FS, a so-called core investment company with its finger in every single pie of business spread over 347 companies in India and overseas, holds a 50 per cent stake in Gift City — India's first operational smart city and international financial services centre in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. In 2007, IL&FS had entered into an agreement with the Gujarat government to develop an international financial services city (IFSC). The agreement had an exit clause.

Debt-laden IL&FS on Monday said it has completed the sale of its 50 per cent stake in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) to the Gujarat government, generating over Rs 32 crore for its equity value and also reducing its consolidated debt by more than Rs 1,200 crore. The stake in GIFT City was bought by Gujarat Urban Development Company Ltd (GUDCL), on behalf of the Gujarat government.

IL&FS Limited has completed the sale of its 50% stake in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Company Limited (GIFTCL) to the Government of Gujarat (GOG) represented by Governor of State of Gujarat / Gujarat Urban Development Company Limited (GUDCL). The sale was completed pursuant to the approval granted by the Hon. National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Principal Bench vide order dated May 22, 2020.

IL&FS TRANSPORTATION NETWORKS, a group company of the troubled IL&FS Group, on Friday reported a standalone loss of Rs 17,000.32 crore for fiscal year 2019-20, amid Covid-19 disruptions. The company had clocked a standalone profit of Rs 251.76 crore during the fiscal 2018-19, it said in a regulatory filing.

The Forensic Report by Grant Thornton India on the books of accounts of lL&FS Transportation Networks India Limited (ITNL) reveals that its auditor — Deloitte Haskins and Sells — assisted the company to tweak the language of the Letter of Assurances (LOAs) issued by the company in a bid to avoid disclosure of contingent liability in its financial statements and then failed to flag the same in its audit reports. ITNL is a group company of financial firm IL&FS. The issue relates to LOA/Letter of Comfort (LOC) issued by ITNL in order to help borrowing at the special purpose vehicle (SPV) level for projects facing cost over¬runs or that required bridge funding. The Grant Thornton report, seen by The Indian Express, shows that there are at least 19 instances where ITNL issued LOA/LOC for loans sanctioned by group company IL&FS Financial Services (in 16 instances) and other financiers (3 instances) — aggregating to over Rs 2,700 crore — to various external parties who were also vendors of ITNL.