Bold Foreign Money Is Filling an Indian Gap in Private Credit

Many of India's private lenders suspect they are mispricing risks

- ANDY MUKHERJEE

India is a sizzling market for private credit, though some participants are wondering if in their eagerness to close deals, investors are shutting their eyes to risks, especially the legal minefields around collateral and bankruptcy.

A decade ago, India's banks were struggling with the world's biggest load of soured corporate loans. At about $200 billion, the write-offs on that exposure have been large. Deposit-taking institutions that tried to recover the debt via insolvency proceedings have had to accept harsh haircuts. Traditional lenders are so scared by that experience that personal credit, which was less than half of banks' advances to industry 10 years ago, is now 1.5 times as large and growing nearly twice as fast.

Credit demand and supply have changed in other ways, too. Large firms, traditionally the heaviest users of bank financing, seem the least interested in project finance. They are borrowing selectively to fund acquisitions and refinance existing debt rather than to create new capacity.

Startups and their founders are far more eager to raise debt, though that's mostly because venture capital funds have become stingy. Initial public offerings are being delayed in a slowing economy, and equity valuations for many unlisted firms are cooling off. Non-bank financiers, too, are starved for funding. Banks have turned cautious about these firms' exposure to overleveraged households.