Anil Ambani has to now return $2.1 billion to Chinese banks

Anil Ambani’s RCom owes money to China Development Bank, Exim Bank of China & Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

Anil Ambani | Photographer: Kuni Takahashi | Bloomberg File photo

Mumbai: Chinese lenders, including China Development Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Exim Bank of China, have demanded at least $2.1 billion from embattled Indian tycoon Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications Ltd., that slid into bankruptcy earlier this year.

State-owned China Development Bank, with loans worth 98.6 billion rupees ($1.4 billion) was the biggest creditor to the indebted telecom company, according to a filing made by the Indian company to stock exchanges. Exim Bank of China sought payment of 33.6 billion rupees, while Industrial and Commercial Bank of China claimed 15.54 billion rupees, according to the filing.

India’s bankruptcy court is hearing lenders, and the former Indian billionaire’s telecom firm as it attempts to find buyers for the company’s assets and pay debt. Anil Ambani’s older sibling and Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. had earlier offered to purchase RCom’s assets in a 173 billion rupee deal, which would have helped partly pay off lenders. The deal fell through after encountering regulatory hurdles.

Mukesh Ambani had in March helped his younger brother avert the risk of being jailed by making an $80 million payment on his behalf to the local unit of Ericsson AB for past maintenance services.

Following is a list of Reliance Communication’s top seven lenders as of June 13. Chinese banks account for about one-fourth of the total claims.

Creditor	Amount Claimed (in billion rupees)
China Development Bank	98.6
State Bank of India	49.1
Life Insurance Corp. of India	47.6
Exim Bank of China	33.6
Bank of Baroda	27
Madison Pacific Trust	23.5
Axis Bank	20.9

 

Reliance Communications on Monday released list of financial creditors that are claiming 573.82 billion rupees under Indian bankruptcy proceedings.

Investment bank VTB Capital of Russia has also featured in the list with a claim of 5.11 billion rupees while Standard Chartered Bank (London), Deutsche Bank (Hong Kong), DBS Bank and Emirates NBD Bank are among other foreign institutions in the financial creditors chart. – Bloomberg