Standard Chartered's unravelling India bet means more pain ahead

Mumbai

WHEN India's billionaire Ruia brothers went looking for loans to expand their steel-to-power empire around the turn of the decade, Standard Chartered Plc stepped up.

Some five years later, the US$2.5 billion Standard Chartered lent to the Ruias' Essar conglomerate is among debts the London-based bank isn't certain it'll recover, according to people with knowledge of the matter. About US$5 billion of advances Standard Chartered made to Indian borrowers have been internally classified as at risk of defaulting, in addition to the US$1 billion of onshore loans that have already become non-performing in India, the people said.