ICRA downgrades Reliance Capital to A2 rating

ICRA Limited has revised its rating for Anil Ambani-led Reliance Capital and its subsidiaries to A2 with negative implications for its short-term debt programme.

The action is primarily due to refinancing risk of short-term maturities and delay in monetising the non-core investments.

However, Reliance Capital called the rating action completely unjustified and inappropriate.

"The company places on record the fact that the rating agency arbitrarily refused to provide the company an opportunity to meet the members of the Review Committee and address any concerns, thereby turning the entire review process prescribed by SEBI into a futile, pointless and unfair exercise," it said.

Reliance Capital had earlier announced plans to monetise its entire 42.88 per cent stake in Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management, which at current market price is valued at over Rs 5,000 crore. It expects to realise a significant premium to market price on this monetisation.

The company has also announced plans to monetise 49 per cent stake in Reliance General Insurance Company which is presently 100 per cent owned. The draft red herring prospect has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

In addition, Reliance Capital is at an advanced stage of monetisation of several of its non-core investments and expects to realise minimum proceeds of Rs 10,000 crore to 12,000 crore in the next three to four months.

"This will slash the debt by a substantial 50 to 60 per cent besides clearing all short-term maturities," said Company Secretary and Compliance Officer Atul Tandon.

"The rating agency has not taken any of these material and highly positive factors into consideration, and has instead mechanically revised the rating as above, resulting in an unwarranted rating action," he said in a communication to stock exchanges on Friday after closing hours.