“The total gross award that your company has won is Rs 7,700 crore as of September 30, 2021. From this, roughly Rs 675 crore will be reimbursed to DMRC as they have paid to lenders and your company will receive approximately Rs 7,100 crore,” Ambani said at the annual general meeting of Reliance Infrastructure on Tuesday.
“Based on the arbitration award, the timeline to pay is 30 days. Barring any further legal complications or any reconciliation complications, this money would come to your company sometime in October-November of this year,” he added.
The company had in 2008 entered into a contract with Delhi Metro for running the country’s first private rail project for 30 years. It stopped operating the Delhi airport metro rail line in 2012 following a dispute over fee, and initiated arbitration alleging violation of contract.
The arbitration panel had ruled in its favour and a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court on September 9 upheld the award, after a protracted legal battle.
Ambani said the proceeds will be utilised to clear debt of listed companies: Reliance Infra at Rs 4,000 crore and Reliance Power at Rs 1,800 crore.
“This will be a real unique achievement. All our lenders in R-Infra are getting paid full principal, appropriate level of interest and zero haircut,” he said.
Ambani said Reliance Infrastructure was also evaluating various offers for further monetisation of its road portfolio to consolidate debt and achieve a better position on cash on hand.
Earlier this year, the company announced the completion of the sale of its Delhi-Agra toll road project to Cube Highways for Rs 3,600 crore. Ambani said it was also in talks with the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority to sell its stake in the city’s metro corridor: Metro One.
He said there were regulatory assets worth Rs 50,000 crore under approval/dispute before various forums for power distribution business — BSES Delhi and erstwhile GTD in Mumbai. Further arbitration claims are pending before various forums for an aggregate Rs 15,000 crore.
The power distribution business will be one of the company’s new focus areas as the proposed Electricity Act will open up opportunities, he said. Defence manufacturing and EPC business are the other areas of interest.
