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Reliance Globalcom has abandoned talks with Bahrain Telecommunications Co (Batelco) to sell a majority stake in the company.
The company is also in advanced stages of negotiations with a consortium of private equity firms led by Samena Capital to sell a majority stake in the company.
The deal is likely to conclude by May-end, the company said in a stock exchange filing.
Due diligence process
RCom and Samena Capital are no longer in discussions with Batelco, it said.
Reliance Globalcom is the submarine cable unit of Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Communications (RCom).
“Samena Capital, in a proposed consortium with certain other global PE funds, is at an advanced stage of the process of due diligence and completion of definitive documents in relation to the acquisition of Reliance Globalcom,” the company said.
However, RCom did not divulge the details of the stake it intends to offload nor the amount it would raise from the stake sale.
Set up in 2008, Samena Capital currently manages total capital commitments of more than $700 million across a range of closed-ended fund structures.
There is no certainty that this will lead to a transaction. “A further announcement will be made in due course, if and when appropriate,” it added.
Reliance Globalcom, which has more than 65,000-km of undersea cable network, provides managed network services to global clients and owns sub-sea cables such as Flag Telecom, Hawk and Falcon. Batelco, which was looking to acquire a majority stake in the company, along with a few West Asian funds, had valued Reliance Globalcom at about $1.3 billion.
RCom was looking to pare its more than Rs 37,000-crore debt by offloading stake in Reliance Globalcom.
IPO plans
Last year, the company had withdrawn its $1-billion initial public offering plans for its submarine cable unit Flag Telecom, citing unfavourable market conditions.
RCom had said Flag Telecom listing would happen when market conditions improve.
The company was expecting these moves to help it reduce overall debt by FY15.
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