Can Anil Ambani make a comeback?

THE Anil Ambani group, under financial distress for years, has come up with some financial recovery claims.

- BENN KOCHUVEEDAN

THE Anil Ambani group, under financial distress for years, has come up with some financial recovery claims. In the last couple of weeks, the group's only remaining functional companies -- Reliance Infra and Reliance Power have announced that they are going to be net debtfree and that these companies are on a solid financial footing.

Both RInfra and RPower have announced a cumulative fund raising plan of ₹7,500 crore.

The speed at which Anil moved to clear debt, and simultaneously announce new fundraising plans, have surprised investors and shares of the firms surged, with RInfra's market cap rising 50% to 12,500 crore and of RPower's by 25% to ₹14,600 crore in one month.

Of the 6,000 crore fund infusion into Reliance Infra, ₹1,200 crore will come from Anil himself and ₹1,800 crore from fund managers including former Blackstone executive and fund manager Mathew Cyriac's Florintree Innovation and the rest ₹3,000 crore from qualified institutional buyers. If fructified, post-issue Florintree will become the second-largest shareholder in RInfra.