Anil Ambani Loses Massive Arbitral Award, Shares Crumble; What We Know So Far
The DMRC had paid Rs 3,300 crore to the Reliance Infra arm, which now needs to be refunded.
Anil Ambani Reliance Group: Anil Ambani, the chairman and managing director of Reliance Group (a.k.a. Reliance ADA Group) was ranked the sixth richest person in the world in 2008. Now in 2024, after the ruling of the Supreme Court set aside a Rs 8,000 crore arbitral award that was granted in favor of a firm in his group, is a different entity altogether with a blow to his fortunes.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday, April 10, set aside a Rs 8,000 crore arbitral award granted in favor of Delhi Airport Metro Express Pvt (DAMEPL).
The award concerns a dispute arising out of a “concession agreement” that was entered into between DAMEPL (a subsidiary of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Infrastructure) and Delhi Metro Rail Corp in 2008.
The top court asked DAMEPL to refund all sums previously paid by the Delhi Metro Rail in accordance with the arbitral award.
DMRC had paid Rs 3,300 crore to the Reliance Infra arm, which now needs to be refunded.
Anil Ambani’s Reliance Infrastructure Ltd in a stock exchange filing that no liability has been imposed on it by the Supreme Court order.
“Reliance Infrastructure wishes to clarify that the Order dated April 10, 2024, passed by the Supreme Court does not impose any liability on the company and the company has not received any money from DMRC/DAMEPL under the arbitral award,” it said.
While DAMEPL is a subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure, it is a separate entity and the liability falls on it.
The younger son of Dhirubhai Ambani and younger brother of Anil Ambani, the 64-year-old MBA from Wharton School was once famous for his lavish lifestyle and was a Rajya Sabha MP for two years.
But over the past few years, he has had setbacks across businesses that pushed him out of the billionaire list.
In 2009, the Allahabad High Court quashed land acquisition for the proposed mega gas-based power project at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh by Anil Ambani’s group.
His venture into the entertainment business with a $1.2 billion deal with Adlabs in 2005 and DreamWorks in 2008 did not work. In 2014, his power and infrastructure companies plunged into huge debt.
Anil sold assets to quell investor concerns about the indebtedness of some of his companies. He sold companies like Big Cinema, Reliance Big Broadcasting, and Big Magic.
RCom, which ushered in a telecom revolution in the country, was sent to insolvency proceedings to repay debt. His bets on defence manufacturing, too, failed.
In 2019, the Supreme Court threatened Anil Ambani with prison after Reliance Communications (RCom) failed to pay Rs 550 crore to Ericsson AB’s Indian Unit.
In 2019, three Chinese banks dragged Anil Ambani to a London court over a $680 million loan default. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd, China Development Bank, and the Export-Import Bank of China had in 2012 agreed to loan $925 million to his group firm Reliance Communications on condition that he provide a personal guarantee.
RCom defaulted and the three banks sued Ambani, who said he agreed to give a non-binding “personal comfort letter” but never a guarantee tied to his personal assets. The matter is still in court.
Reliance Capital filed for bankruptcy in 2021 after defaulting on bonds worth Rs 24,000 crore.
Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, which built Mumbai’s first metro line, missed a bond payment as it waited for proceeds from the sale of power transmission assets to Gautam Adani’s unit to cover the amount.
