Standard Chartered takes over Winsome Diamonds' assets

Standard Chartered, one of the foreign banks that lent money to Winsome Diamonds against L/Cs (letters of credit) provided by Indian banks, has taken possession of the erring firm’s immoveable properties in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Surat, Goa, Kolkata and Mumbai. The bank said in a possession notice published in a financial daily that it was attaching the properties after Winsome Diamonds and its guarantors failed to repay Rs 4321.12 crore plus interest within 60 days of having been issued a demand notice on October 21, 2014.

Winsome owes over Rs 6,000 crore to a consortium of lenders. About 15 Indian banks had provided standby letters of credit (SBLC) facilities in favour of bullion banks like Standard Bank of South Africa and Standard Chartered. As per the terms of the SBLC, Indian lenders are required to pay the bullion banks if Winsome fails to pay on the due dates.