Reliance Group repaid Rs 35,000 crore in the past 14 months : Anil Ambani
Embattled tycoon Anil Ambani Tuesday vowed to cut debt of his group to “bare” minimum and said more than Rs 35,000 crore of loans have been paid back in the last 14 months and all future payment obligations will be met in a timely manner.
Tycoon Anil Ambani plans to raise about Rs 21,700 crore ($3.2 billion) by selling assets from roads to radio stations in a bid to cut debt.
In recent weeks, he sold a radio station and mutual fund business and is said to be in talks to sell general insurance unit.
Ambani, who a couple of months back avoided a possible jail term after elder brother and richest Indian Mukesh Ambani paid off an overdue liability towards a contractor, has been on an asset sale spree to raise funds to cut about Rs 1 lakh crore of debt at his infrastructure-to-finance conglomerate.
In a media conference call, he blamed “unwarranted rumour-mongering” for the sharp fall in shares of his group firms, Reliance Power Ltd and Reliance Infrastructure Ltd.
“The Group was fully committed to meeting all future debt servicing obligations in a timely manner, through further asset monetisation plans that are already at various stages of implementation,” Anil Ambani said.
He expressed confidence in transforming the Group to “capital light (with) bare minimal debt, and a higher return on equity”.
The breakdown is like this, according to the group spokesman: Reliance Infrastructure Ltd is seeking Rs 9,000 crore from the sale of nine road projects. Reliance Capital Ltd aims to raise Rs 1,200 crore by selling its radio unit, and Rs 11,500 crore from monetizing its holdings in the financial business.
Despite challenging conditions and no financial support from financiers, the group has repaid the principal of Rs 24,800 crore and made interest payments of Rs 10,600 crore between April 1, 2018, and May 31, 2019, he said.
These payments are related to debt of Reliance Capital, Reliance Power and Reliance Infra, and their respective affiliates.
Reliance Communications’ 2017 deal to sell its telecom assets to Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, owned by Anil’s elder brother Mukesh Ambani, was scrapped earlier this year.
“The lack of timely realizations in the asset sales is sounding alarms for most of the Anil Ambani-led companies,” said Mathew Antony, managing partner at Aditya Consulting that advises bankrupt firms on fund raising.
Source: Input From Agencies
