Nilang Desai

Practice Areas

• Banking & Finance

• Restructuring & Insolvency

Career

With over 18 years of experience, Nilang Desai specialises in Restructuring & Insolvency as well as Structured Finance matters. His practice focuses on a comprehensive range of domestic and international business reorganisation and restructuring matters having acted on many market firsts in this space. Nilang also represents various banks, financial institutions, multilateral and bilateral institutions as well as borrowers in connection with Indian and offshore structured loan transactions. With extensive cross–border experience, Nilang and the market-leading team at AZB have led highly complex structuring deals in collaboration with international teams. He holds a Bachelors of Law from King’s College London, qualified as a Solicitor in England and Wales, is an Indian advocate and has qualified as a chartered accountant.

Professional Memberships

• Member of Working Group to propose the best practices for Insolvency Professional Entities registered as Insolvency Professionals, constituted by the Insolvency Law Academy (2023)

• Invitee to the Manoharan Committee of the RBI on revitalizing the secondary debt trading market

• Participant in the Insolvency Law Committee constituted by the Ministry of Corporate Affair (2018-2023)

• Participant in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India Committee on Prepacks under IBC (2019)

• Participant in various RBI roundtables on the IBC

• Vice President (elect) and Executive Committee Member (elect) of Insol India

• Member of the Technical Committee for Insol 2023

• Law Society of England & Wales (2008)

• Bar Council of Maharashtra & Goa (2005)

Publications

https://www.azbpartners.com/bank/asia-pacific-restructuring-and-insolvency-procedures-apac-guide-india-3rd-edition/

https://www.azbpartners.com/bank/risks-for-transactions-and-directors-in-financially-distressed-businesses-india/

https://www.azbpartners.com/bank/litigation-financing-for-avoidance-applications-investment-opportunities-and-value-maximisation-under-the-insolvency-and-bankruptcy-code/

https://www.azbpartners.com/bank/overview-of-the-evolving-jurisprudence-under-the-insolvency-and-bankruptcy-code-2016/

Work Highlights

• Essar Steel and Bhushan Steel on India’s first non-performing debt acquisition transactions by international distressed assets funds using the ‘rent-an-arc’ route

• GTL Infra on India’s first control (loan-to-own) trades by international distressed assets funds

• Bharati Defence for India’s first credit bid in an IBC process

• DHFL & Jet Airways on India’s first insolvency process for a (i) financial institutional and an (ii) aviation company and also on the only other 2 subsequent insolvency processes for financial institutions (SREI Finance and Reliance Capital)

• Various clients on some of India’s largest and most complex special situation and restructuring processes, including Altico, GTL Infra, RCom, Matix Fertilisers, Jindal Power & Steel, GMR Infra, Bhushan Power & Steel, Hindustan National Glass, BGPPL, and Jayaswal Neco

• Several market-defining distressed situations, including for Matix Fertilisers, Jindal Group, GMR Group, Alok Industries, Essar Group, BGPPL, Indiabulls, many of which transactions developed financing structures subsequently emulated by the wider market

Awards