India’s Busted Macquarie Clone Must Go Under the Knife

The institution that made a business of exploiting India’s desperation for funds, particularly for long-gestation infrastructure projects, is now seeking to protect its assets from unpaid creditors trying to push it into bankruptcy. Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. had 30 years to spawn an Indian clone of Macquarie Group: a powerhouse of finance, investments, asset ownership and risk management. Instead, Ravi Parthasarathy, the founder who stepped down recently as chairman, went on to build an unwieldy, debt-fueled empire that has now crumbled.