Insolvency petition filed against Reliance Home Finance

Reliance Home Finance, once owned by Anil Ambani, is staring at insolvency proceedings after a financial creditor, Invent Assets Securitisation & Reconstruction Private Limited, filed a petition under Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, the company said in an exchange filing on Monday. The petition was filed before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Mumbai bench. The claim amount in the petition is Rs 7.80 crore (including interest).

Reliance Home Finance plans to seek legal advice and take appropriate steps to protect its interests in this matter. The financial implication on the company is currently uncertain and will depend on the final outcome of the proceedings and any subsequent legal challenges.

It must be mentioned here that the company has signed a Business Transfer Agreement (BTA) and Lenders’ Implementation Memorandum, both dated March 29, 2023, for the transfer of the company’s business to Reliance Commercial Finance Limited (RCFL), a 100% subsidiary of Authum Investment & Infrastructure Limited.

The company has discontinued its housing finance activity and surrendered its license/certificate, which was approved by the Reserve Bank of India on January 25, 2024.

There are certain legal cases against the company, and the financial implications of these are currently unascertainable. SEBI had issued a final order dated August 22, 2024, against the company, its promoter, and key managerial personnel, restraining them from dealing in securities and imposing monetary penalties. The company has appealed this order, and a stay order has been secured on the monetary penalty.

Anil Ambani’s fortune crumbling

A long list of erstwhile Anil Ambani-owned companies have either already gone through resolution process or are undergoing corporate insolvency resolution process. The biggest of them are Reliance Capital and Reliance Communications, Reliance Communication Infrastructure and Reliance Naval and Engineering Ltd. While Reliance Capital, Reliance Communication Infrastructure and Reliance Naval and Engineering Ltd have already seen resolution, Reliance Communication CIRP is yet to see finality, even seven years after its admission.

In the mid-2000s, Anil Ambani stood atop a sprawling business empire, inheriting a slice of his father Dhirubhai Ambani’s Reliance legacy. His companies—spanning telecom, power, infrastructure, and finance—were once symbols of India’s economic ambition. But by the 2020s, the empire began to crumble under colossal debt, legal battles, and market shifts

The Telecom Dream Collapses

Reliance Communications (RCom), once India’s second-largest telecom operator, became the first domino to fall. By 2017, RCom was drowning in ₹45,000 crore of debt, crushed by competition from Jio, the telecom giant run by his brother Mukesh Ambani. In 2019, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) admitted RCom into insolvency. After a three-year saga, UV Asset Reconstruction Company (UVARC) took over its debt in 2022. Towers, spectrum, and real estate were sold off, marking the end of Anil’s telecom ambitions.

The Battle for Reliance Capital

The crown jewel of Anil’s financial empire, Reliance Capital, faced a reckoning in 2021. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) pushed it into insolvency over ₹20,000 crore in defaults. What followed was a corporate thriller: bidding wars between the Hinduja Group and Torrent Investments, courtroom clashes over valuation, and accusations of foul play. By 2023, lenders approved Hinduja’s ₹9,650 crore bid.

The Shadow of Subsidiaries

Reliance Home Finance and Reliance Commercial Finance, subsidiaries of Reliance Capital, mirrored their parent’s fate. Admitted to NCLT in 2021, their insolvency became entangled in Reliance Capital’s broader collapse.

Reliance Naval and Engineering, India’s largest private shipyard, symbolized Anil’s diversification dreams. But by 2020, it sank into insolvency with ₹10,000 crore in debt. Anil exited before NCLT admission, and by 2022, Hazel Mercantile Ltd. acquired the company.

Close Calls and Narrow Escapes

Not all ventures met the same fate. Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra), Anil’s infrastructure arm, dodged insolvency by selling assets like its Delhi Metro stake to pay off creditors. Reliance Power, another near-casualty, restructured ₹24,000 crore of debt in 2020, avoiding NCLT but shrinking into a shadow of its former self.

Also See: ACME Cleantech buys Anil Ambani-promoted company Reliance Infrastructure Consulting & Engineers