Lanco Infratech borrowed its way to a ₹44,000 crore liquidation

Lanco Infratech began as a construction company in Hyderabad and grew into one of India's most aggressive infrastructure groups, building independent power plants, taking EPC contracts, and buying into coal mining and real estate. Its stated ambition was 15,000 MW of generating capacity by 2015, up from 2,100 MW, and it owned the 1,200 MW Udupi power plant. The growth was paid for with borrowed money.

The first crack came in October 2012: Lanco missed a ₹250 crore repayment and Crisil cut its rating to 'D', the default category. The A$730 million purchase of Australia's Griffin Coal in December 2010 had added lasting financial stress, and repayments were bunched into the months that followed. A ₹7,000+ crore debt restructuring approved by lenders in December 2013 failed to save it, and in August 2014 Lanco sold its flagship Udupi plant to Adani Power for ₹6,000 crore — a fire sale that cut assets but not the debt.

In June 2017 the Reserve Bank of India put Lanco on its first list of 12 large non-performing accounts and directed IDBI Bank to file an insolvency petition. The NCLT in Hyderabad admitted the case on 9 August 2017, with debt identified at ₹44,365 crore.

Thriveni Earthmovers' resolution plan — ₹1,400 crore cash plus assumption of ₹38,000 crore of subsidiary liabilities — won only about 15% of creditor votes against the 75% required. The NCLT ordered liquidation on 28 August 2018. The parent company was wound up and its subsidiaries went through their own insolvency proceedings.