Anil Ambani (File photo)

LONDON: Business tycoon Anil Ambani has had his application to appeal a $100 million (Rs 753 crore) conditional order refused by the UK Court of Appeal. Ambani, the brother of one of Asia’s richest men, had been ordered at a February 7 hearing to pay the court $100 million by 4 pm local time (9.30 pm IST) on March 20 (Friday) in order to avoid having his defence struck out.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China , China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China are suing him for more than $700 million (Rs 5,277 crore), including interest, for defaulting on a loan they gave Reliance Communications (RCom) — now in insolvency proceedings — in February 2012, which RCom defaulted on. The banks claim Ambani provided a personal guarantee for the loan.

On Thursday in the Court of Appeal civil division, Lord Justice Flaux refused the Reliance Group chairman permission to appeal the conditional order and refused to stay the proceedings.

Flaux said that “notwithstanding the length and ingenuity” of Ambani’s arguments, his appeal “has no real prospect of success and is totally without merit. There is no basis for stay of the judge’s order and that part of the application is also refused”.

In his judgment, Flaux said Ambani had not satisfied the court that he had little or no money and “had no access to assets which could be used to make a payment into court”. Flaux said even though Ambani’s defence was improbable, that did not mean friends and family would not assist.

Ambani argued that the high court judge, Justice Waksman , had made “errors on facts” in relation to Ambani’s availability of funds from third parties. But Flaux said: “The judge was entitled to conclude that the defendant had not satisfied him that his brother and other family would not be willing to assist him, by making sufficient funds available, particularly in light of financial assistance they had given in the past ... ”

