An Empire Shaken

Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group is going through one of its toughest times. Can it survive the debt bomb?

- Nevin John

Everyone in the business circles of Mumbai – and other metros as well – seems to have an opinion on Anil Ambani’s current predicament and his fall from being one of the richest men in the world 10 years ago to one who is hanging on to his billionaire status by a mere thread. Most rivals say he was over ambitious. Only a few seem to speak up in his favour saying that at least some of his companies went down because the entire sectors were in trouble.

Reliance Communications (RCom), his telecom company, wants to go for voluntary bank- ruptcy to settle with debtors. The power business has a slew of unfinished projects and has had to sell some lucrative assets to reduce debt. The Supreme Court has pulled him up for not repaying the money RCom owes to operational creditor Ericsson, and has said he will have to spend time behind bars if he does not pay 550 crore by the third week of March. His defence company, Reliance Naval and Engineering, which he bought from Nikhil Gandhi, is reeling under debt, as is his infrastructure venture.

Only the financial company – Reliance Capital (RCap) – is doing well, though it, too, has lost opportunities while peers such as Bajaj Finance, Shriram Capital and Capital First (now merged with IDBI Bank) gained substantially in the past few years.

In 2008, a survey estimated him to be the 6th richest man in the world with a wealth in excess of $42 billion. Currently, his wealth as promoter of seven listed companies is valued around 13,742 crore – a shade under $2 billion at current exchange rates. But if the pledged shares are taken into account, his current net worth would be around 8,000 crore, even as the share prices of most of his companies are falling. He has dropped in the