After facing years of setbacks, Anil Ambani’s fortunes are now finally changing. Canara Bank on Thursday informed the Bombay High Court that it has withdrawn its decision of classifying Anil Ambani’s bankrupt telecom venture Reliance Communications' loan account as fraudulent. The issue began in November 2024 when Canara Bank labelled the loan account of Reliance Communications, a company promoted by Anil Ambani, as fraudulent. Ambani challenged the move in the Bombay High Court, stating that the bank had not followed proper procedure before taking such a serious step.
Earlier on June 2, State Bank of India (SBI) has also classified the loan account of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications as ‘fraud’, the bankrupt telecom company claimed. After the bank’s disclosure, a bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Neela Gokhale disposed of the petition filed by Ambani challenging the bank’s order, saying nothing survives in it.The bench said the withdrawal order shall be informed to the Reserve Bank of India.On November 8, 2024, the bank classified the loan account as “fraud” for reasons including that a Rs 1,050 crore loan extended in 2017 was “routed” to a group company to pay other liabilities to connected or related parties.Ambani had challenged the Canara Bank’s order, arguing that he was not given a hearing before his loan account was classified as fraudulent. The industrialist had contended that the fraud classification was issued on November 8, 2024, but was only communicated to him on December 25, after the HC had already stayed a similar classification in a related matter.
Anil Ambani, once a prominent and much talked about corporate had all but faded from public memory. But now, the Founder Chairman of Anil Ambani Group of companies is making headlines again for the right reasons. In the past six months, two of his group companies, Reliance Power and Reliance Infrastructure, have seen market cap gains of 1.5x and 1.9x, respectively. Also, foreign institutional holdings have increased, and so has the group’s project pipeline, which includes solar-plus-storage megaprojects and Rs 10,000 crore smart munitions contracts. More importantly, the companies are debt-free. Additionally, a Rs 17,600-crore capital raise is underway.Backing these ambitions is a focused effort to deleverage the group. Since September 2024, Reliance Power and Reliance Infrastructure have reduced debt and raised capital through various instruments, including preferential issues and foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs).
In November 2024, the group launched its “Reliance Group Corporate Centre” (RGCC) under Vision 2030. A steering team comprising group veterans like Sateesh Seth, Punit Garg, and K Raja Gopal, collectively with 100 years of experience, now guides the transformation. From a dramatic fall after the 2008 crash and the collapse of key ventures, Anil Ambani’s group is now seeking redemption which has drived investor confidence in ADAG group of companies.