Katerra says US entity filed for bankruptcy, India biz not affected

A company statement said this filing does not affect the operations of Katerra's international affiliates, such as Katerra India. 

"Our construction, design, and factories continue doing business as usual. We remain committed to the completion of all on-going projects and we are actively seeking new projects," said Ankur Gupta, President, Katerra India. 

"Our customers and vendors should know that we remain steadfast in our business and in our commitment to them. We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with our customers and vendors," he added. 

The statement claimed that business at Katerra India continues to be positive with a strong pipeline and handovers scheduled during 2021-2022. 

Katerra India has a diverse portfolio of projects that include hospitals, business parks, malls, hotels, residential and commercial buildings, and aviation, across Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, Odisha, Maharashtra, Goa, and UP. 

Katerra India offers a wide range of precast construction components and construction services including architectural and structural design, design-and-build, turnkey, fit-out and much more. 

Based in Bengaluru, Katerra is a technology company optimising every aspect of building design, materials supply and construction. 

Wall Street Journal reported that construction startup Katerra Inc — one of the bigger investments in SoftBank Group Corp's $100 billion Vision Fund— filed for bankruptcy protection in the US after attempts to shore up its finances floundered. 

In a release accompanying the Sunday filing, Katerra said its financial condition had deteriorated rapidly, partly because the company couldn't get construction projects bonded or secure additional capital following the "unexpected bankruptcy filing of Katerra's former lender". 

WSJ said the release didn't name the lender. Katerra's filing came three months after another SoftBank Vision Fund-backed company, the lender Greensill Capital, filed for insolvency protection. 

Greensill had made hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to Katerra, WSJ has reported. 

Katerra's bankruptcy filing marks the end of SoftBank's attempts to shore up the finances of the startup, into which the Vision Fund had poured more than $2 billion, making it one of the fund's larger investments, the report said. 

The Japanese investor poured around $200 million into Katerra last May, then an additional $200 million infusion in December, which gave the Vision Fund a majority stake, the Journal reported. 

At the time, Katerra's chief executive said the new investment would enable Katerra to avoid having to seek bankruptcy protection.