ADAG to part-repay $850 mn loan; creditors claim default

LONDON: Anil Ambani group is planning to part-repay about Rs 4,000 crore of debt, backed by shares in three group firms, even as some creditors claimed that the credit facility was in default, a report said here today.

"The claim that the facility is in default is based on the creditors' assertion that Ambani failed to top up with USD 200 million in cash the collateral account for the USD 850 million loan," a report on British daily Financial Times website said quoting people familiar with the situation.

When contacted a Reliance ADA group spokesperson in New Delhi debunked the news item and told PTI," there is no default of any kind in our borrowings from Barclays."

The USD 850-million three-year loan was arranged by Barclays Capital in April 2007, and is mostly held by the British bank and its rival RBS, but also involves some hedge funds.

The debt is backed with shares in RCOM, Reliance Infra and Reliance Capital, the report said, adding that failure to make the payment has deepened the rift between facility's bank and hedge fund lenders.