Mukesh Ambani’s luxury real estate bet gets HSBC financing boost
HSBC Holdings Plc has nearly doubled the size of a loan arrangement to part of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s business empire, bolstering its bet on Asia’s richest person.
The London-based bank originally provided a £60 million ($73 million) loan facility to a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd. shortly after it acquired the Stoke Park estate in southeast England for £57 million in 2021, according to UK registry filings.
It has since extended the arrangement three times, with the latest disclosed increase in December taking it to £115 million, the filings show. HSBC has been involved for more than a decade in financing arrangements for Stoke Park, a roughly 300-acre (121-hectare) Buckinghamshire leisure property that includes a championship golf course and has provided a setting for two James Bond films.
Ambani’s conglomerate is now carrying out a major refurbishment of Stoke Park, a marquee asset in its shift away from the energy sector that has underpinned the billionaire’s fortune.
Reliance’s renovation plans include replacing the roof of the property’s Georgian-era mansion that is now a luxury hotel, erecting seven-star villas and removing surface-level parking.
Ambani, 66, is the world’s 11th-richest person through his major stake in Reliance, India’s most valuable company, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
A representative for HSBC declined to comment. A representative for Mumbai-based Reliance didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
HSBC and Ambani’s companies have a history of working together, spanning blockchain-enabled transactions and other ways of speeding up business in India.
