Battered by regulatory action and facing heat from rating agencies, Reliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani on Monday vowed to do more to streamline the group’s overall operations, including exiting the lending business under Reliance Capital and repaying another ₹15,000 crore of the group’s debt by March 2020.

“As part of the transformation process, Reliance Capital will no longer be in the lending business,” he said. Between them, the two lending businesses — Reliance Commercial Finance (RCF) and Reliance Home Finance (RHF) — have an asset base of over ₹25,000 crore.

RCF and RHF are working closely with lenders to finalise the resolution plan which is expected to be completed by December 2019,” Ambani said, while addressing shareholders at the company AGM

“Reliance Capital will only be a financial shareholder in both these companies to reconverge shareholder value under a new management and shareholding structure and effectively reduce debt of Reliance Capital Group by ₹25,000 crore,” he added.

The Reliance Group has repaid over ₹35,000 crore in the 14 months till May 2019 and will be paying another ₹15,000 crore till March 2020, aggregating to over ₹50,000 crore through monetisation and cash flows to lenders.

Ambani blamed lack of reforms in the legal and regulatory framework for some of his problems. “Our group has over ₹60,000 crore receivables stuck in regulatory and arbitration matters which are pending for as much as 5-10 years. Resolving should be the next focus of the government,” he said.

Ambani said that in the last six months, Reliance Infrastructure suffered collateral damage due to a combination of factors — the crisis in the financial services sector; irrational actions of auditors and rating agencies; and the now recognised temporary slowdown of the economy.

Read more:Reliance Cap concludes 21.54% stake sale in RNAM for Rs 3,030 cr

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