Reliance Infra Will Turn Debt-Free This Financial Year, Says Anil Ambani

Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. Chairman Anil Ambani said on Tuesday the company will be completely debt-free this financial year.

Reliance Infra, which is sitting on a debt of over Rs 6,000 crore, has been working towards monetising its assets to reduce debt.

Addressing the company's 91st annual shareholders meeting through an online platform, Ambani said, “Reliance Infra will be a debt-free company this year.”

In 2018, the company sold its Mumbai energy business to Adani Transmission for nearly Rs 18,800 crore, which reduced its debt to nearly Rs 7,500 crore.

In January this year, the company said it had receivedan in-principle approval from the National Highways Authority of India for sale of its Delhi-Agra toll road to Singapore-based Cube Highways and Infrastructure for Rs 3,600 crore. According to the company, the deal is on track.

Ambani said Reliance Infra has around Rs 60,000 crore of receivables stuck in regulatory and arbitration matters, which are pending for 5-10 years. He added that the company has assets of over Rs 65,000 crore and a networth of over Rs 11,000 crore.

Speaking of Covid-19 and the related slowdown of economic activity, Ambani said, “Engineering and construction projects are fully operational with 5,000 people working on sites. All the road toll collection is already at 75% of pre-Covid-19 period and will achieve 100% in the next few weeks."

The country was under lockdown for the past two months to curb the Covid-19 pandemic.

The defence joint ventures with Dassault and Thales are fully operational at Mihan, Ambani said. He also noted that the BSES distribution companies in Delhi operated through the pandemic.