Anil Ambani says will make timely debt service payments

MUMBAI: Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani said on Tuesday his diversified telecoms to financial services and infrastructure group was fully committed to meet all of its debt obligations in a timely manner.

He was addressing media through a conference call in the wake of sharp recent falls in the shares of his group firms Reliance Power Ltd and its parent Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, which Ambani attributed to “unwarranted rumour-mongering”.

“We at the Reliance Group are fully committed to meet our future debt servicing obligations in a timely manner through further asset monetization plans that are already at various stages of implementation,” Ambani said on the call.

He said in the last 14 months, the group has already paid 350 billion rupees ($5.04 billion) towards its debt.

Ambani, once among India’s top billionaires, has seen his wealth erode in the last five years due to burgeoning debt at his group firms.

In March, his elder brother and Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, provided a last minute succour of $80 million on Anil’s behalf helping him avoid a jail term over money his Reliance Communications owed Ericsson.

“The journey that we have undertaken to transforming the group to be capital light, bear minimal debt and higher return on equity will enhance the value for our stakeholders,” he said on Tuesday.

Shares of Reliance Infrastructure were down 3.43% and those of Reliance Power were down 1.74% at 0622 GMT on Tuesday while the broader Nifty index was up 0.28%.