A UK court on Friday, in a conditional order, directed Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani to pay $100 million ahead of a full trial. The amount has to be deposited into the court pending a full trial in a case, which involves three Chinese banks.

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The Group is fighting a bid by top Chinese banks to recover $680 million from the Indian businessman.

Judge David Waksman gave him a six-week timeline to make the payment.

The UK judge said: “Very real and sound basis for concluding that it is not possible to take at face value all that Anil Ambani says about the extent of his assets.”

“There's good reason to suppose Ambani is not being frank. Good reason to suppose Ambani is likely to have more assets at his disposal than he has let on.”

The younger Ambani brother pleaded poverty in his dispute with three Chinese banks seeking $680 million in defaulted loans.

Anil Ambani in his submission to the court said the value of his investments has collapsed.

"The current value of my shareholdings is down to approximately US$82.4 million and my net worth is zero after taking into account my liabilities. In summary, I do not hold any meaningful assets which can be liquidated for the purposes of these proceedings.”

“I am unable to raise any finance from external sources – including family members.”

The Chinese banks in a statement, after the conditional order was issued, said: “We welcome the grant of this order against Ambani as we have always said his defence is not credible and we find his latest claims to have no meaningful assets similarly implausible, inconsistent and misleading.”

“This is a straightforward debt claim to recover outstanding loans made to RCom in good faith and secured by a binding personal guarantee given by Ambani, which he has refused to honour. We remain very confident in our claim. We hope that Ambani will comply with the court’s order and look forward to the swift resolution of the case at trial.”

Anil Ambani spokesperson, on Friday’s order, said: "Ambani is reviewing the order of the UK court and will take legal advice as to further remedies in appeal. The order pertains to an alleged personal liability of Ambani and will have no bearing on the operations of the Reliance Infrastructure Limited, Reliance Power Limited and Reliance Capital Limited."

Chinese lenders include ICBC, China Development Bank and Export-Import Bank of China have sought $680 million in defaulted loans to Reliance Communication (RCom).

The lenders had filed a case against Anil Ambani in London High Court over his personal guarantee claiming that they provided a $925 million loan to RCom in 2012.

These banks claim that the loan was given on the condition of Ambani’s personal guarantee. Ambani told the court that while he agreed to give a non-binding “personal comfort letter”, he never gave a personal guarantee.