Adanis rejects R-Infra’s Rs 13,400 crore claim in Mumbai power business transfer deal

NEW DELHI: A fresh tension is brewing up between Asia’s richest billionaire Gautam Adani and Anil Ambani. Adani Group firm Adani Transmission Ltd (ATL) on Monday rejected the claim of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Infrastructure, which is seeking Rs 13,400 crore in relation to a deal to transfer its Mumbai power business to ATL.

In a regulatory filing, ATL said that the claim amount is just Rs 500 crore and accused R-Infra of not settling its significantly larger claims under the share purchase agreement (SPA).“Reliance Infrastructure Ltd (R-Infra), part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, initiated arbitration on one specific dispute under the Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) in December 2021. This was a claim for Rs 500 Cr. Following due process, ATL/Adani Electricity rejected the R-Infra claim. In addition, ATL/Adani Electricity submitted that R-Infra has not yet settled AEML’s significantly larger claims under the SPA,” ATL said in a regulatory filing.

ATL added that in their view, these are afterthoughts and based on untenable positions. ATL/Adani Electricity is following the due process laid out under the SPA for dispute resolution and will respond with facts and present its own claims against R-Infra in the arbitration proceedings.

R-infra has said that arbitration claim, filed before the Mumbai Centre for International Arbitration (MCIA), is in relation to disputes with regard to breach of the terms of the share purchase agreement dated 21st December 2017 relating to transfer of Mumbai Power Business to Adani Transmission Limited.

The Adani Group in 2017 had acquired Reliance Infra’s (then Reliance Energy) Mumbai power business in an Rs 18,800-crore deal. The deal gave Adani Group a strong base in the distribution business and now Adani Transmission is India’s largest private player in the transmission and power distribution space. This fresh dispute comes amid growing competition between two of India’s all-powerful billionaires, Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani.