Anil Ambani to continue clearing dues, next debt repayment to be worth $2.1 billion

Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) Chairman Anil Ambani on Monday claimed that his group is planning to pay creditors Rs 15,000 crore ($2.1 billion) by March 2020.

As of March 2018, the Reliance Group companies had a total debt of over Rs 1.7 lakh crore which reduced to Rs 93,900 crore in July 2019, excluding Reliance Communications, after the sale of major assets and businesses.

In June, Reliance Group said that over Rs 35,000 crore of loans--- principal of Rs 24,800 crore and interest payments of Rs 10,600 crore --- had been paid back in 14 months and all future payment obligations would be met in a timely manner.

However, in the process to pare debt, Anil Ambani has lost a lot of his empire. Presenting shareholders with another plan to sell off assets, Anil Ambani said that financial company Reliance Capital would exit lending business.

Reliance Capital has decided to shut its two lending arms - Reliance Commercial Finance and Reliance Home Finance -- by December, the company said. Both the credit verticals have a cumulative asset of over Rs 25,000 crore, PTI reported.

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"As part of the business transformation, Reliance Capital has decided to exit the lending business. Both our lending businesses - Reliance Commercial Finance and Reliance Home Finance -- are working closely with all our lenders and other stakeholders to finalise the resolution plans which are expected to be completed by December," Ambani told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting (AGM) in Mumbai.

This is second major business that the ADAG group is exiting after Reliance Communication which closed two years ago after it failed to materialise deal with Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio because of regulatory hurdles. RCom later filed for bankruptcy. Its defence business -- Reliance Naval -- is also under severe financial stress.

Also Read: Anil Ambani falls off billionaire club; equity wealth crashes from $42 billion to $0.5 billion

Ambani, 60, claimed that rumours and reckless selling in the last six months had caused collateral damage to his financial services companies.

"These events aided and abetted by reckless selling and rumour mongering by vested interest have affected our shareholders," he said.

He also claimed that his group has over Rs 60,000 crore of receivables in regulatory and arbitrary matters which are pending for the past five to 10 years.

Edited by Chitranjan Kumar with PTI inputs