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India Trying to Stop Reliance From Selling Assets, Times Says

The demand was made in an ongoing court case against Reliance Industries and British Gas, the paper said.

India Trying to Stop Reliance From Selling Assets, Times Says
Mukesh D. Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd. (Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- The Indian government is trying to stop Reliance Industries Ltd. from paring its assets including a plan to sell a 20% stake to Saudi Aramco, the Times of India reported.

The demand was made in an ongoing court case against Reliance Industries and British Gas, the paper said. The government has sought to prevent the two companies from selling their assets, and honoring a $4.5 billion international arbitration award in a production-sharing dispute over the Panna-Mukta and Tapti fields, it said.

India has asked Reliance directors to file an affidavit disclosing the company’s assets. The Delhi High Court will next hear the case on Feb. 6, the report said.

The government affidavit states that Reliance is “in a massive group debt of 2.88 trillion rupees” ($40.5 billion), and that there would be nothing left for the government to execute its award if it sold assets, the report said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Archana Chaudhary in New Delhi at achaudhary2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Stanley James

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