TOKYO -- Orix was one of Japan's first leasing companies, a trailblazer in the country's financial markets, known as a consummate risk-taker. But Hitomaro Yano, Orix finance officer, admits that sometimes even a company that has delivered more than 50 consecutive years of profits can get things wrong.
Late last year the investment group was forced to take a $100 million hit when its affiliate Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services, one of India's biggest nonbank finance companies, defaulted on loans. The crisis sparked such turmoil in India's financial system that the government was eventually forced to take control of IL&FS to avert wider contagion and this month several former directors were charged with fraud.
