UK court dismisses Chinese bank plea for conditional order in $680 mn claim against Ambani

UK High Court has dismissed an application filed by Chinese banks seeking summary judgement in their contested USD 680 million claims against Reliance Communications Chairman Anil Ambani.

The hearing in the matter took place on November 7 and the order was issued on Monday, a spokesperson for Anil Ambani said in a statement.

UK High Court has dismissed "summary judgement application of Chinese banks against Anil Ambani" in which the "Chinese banks had claimed USD 680 million from Mr. Ambani against Chinese banks' corporate loans to Reliance Communications Limited (RCom)", it said.

"Mr Ambani's position that the claim made by Chinese banks in relation to his alleged guarantee for corporate loans availed by Reliance Communications Limited (RCom) could not be granted by way of a summary judgement has been duly upheld by the UK High Court," the spokesperson said.

At this stage of the proceedings, the evidence of the personnel of RCom who were dealing with the personnel of the Chinese banks could not be placed, which led to certain doubts being expressed in the judgement on account of the evidence being incomplete and thus appearing implausible.

Ambani contested the proceedings and put up a strong legal defence, and will continue to contest the proceedings and seek leave to defend, without any conditions as to making of deposits or payments being imposed, the statement said.

"Mr Ambani is confident that he will have an opportunity to place the necessary evidence before the UK High Court, in the course of the trial to establish that Chinese banks claim are without any merit," the statement said.

The spokesperson said that Ambani is confident that his position would be fully vindicated once all the facts and the entire evidence is before the Court.

RCom is currently undergoing through insolvency proceedings following a plea filed by Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson after the company failed to clear its dues.

RCom's secured debt is estimated to be around Rs 33,000 crore. Lenders have submitted claims of around Rs 49,000 crore in August.

Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Varde Capital and UV Asset Reconstruction Company have submitted bids to buy assets of debt-ridden Reliance Communications.