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In a reprieve to Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Communications, the Supreme Court has vacated a stay granted by the Bombay High Court, clearing way for its earlier announced sale of wireless assets. In its order, the court also said the secured lenders can proceed with the asset sales in accordance with the law.
“Accordingly, there is now no bar in immediately completing the asset sales of spectrum, media convergence nodes and real estate, and the same shall be concluded expeditiously,” RCom said in a regulatory filing. Based on this, RCom said it is now confident of achieving overall debt reduction of about ₹25,000 crore within the next few weeks from the first phase of the asset monetisation programme, it added.
Pact with RJio
On December 28, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio) had entered into an agreement to acquire the wireless assets of debt-laden RCom, controlled by his younger sibling, Anil. RJio had emerged the successful bidder to acquire RCom’s more than 43,000 towers, 1.78-lakh route km of optical fibre cable network, 122.4 MHz of spectrum in the 800, 900, 1800 and 2100 MHz bands and 248 MCN.
Ericsson India, which had seven-year contract to operate and manage RCom’s nationwide network, had filed an insolvency petition citing non-payment of dues. Ericsson India, the Indian arm of Swedish networking giant Ericsson, had in 2014 signed a deal to operate and manage RCom’s nationwide network, but alleged the latter of failing to meet contractual payments.
In March, Ericsson India filed insolvency petitions against RCom and two of its subsidiaries, Reliance Infratel and Reliance Telecom, over total unpaid dues of ₹1,150 crore. The company also secured a stay order from the Bombay High Court.
Reliance Infratel
On a stay granted by National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in favour of minority investors with about 4 per cent stake in RCom’s tower company, Reliance Infratel Ltd (RITL), the Supreme Court directed it to file an appeal before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT). This is, however, limited to tower and fibre assets.
“As legally advised, and based on the order of the Supreme Court as above, RCom is confident of securing appropriate relief from the NCLAT to enable sales of tower and fibre assets to be completed at the earliest. The claim of the minority investors (which is fully disputed by RCom) can, in any case, be a maximum of about ₹200-300 crore from the sale proceeds,” RCom said in the filing.
“RCom intends filing the appeal before NCLAT tomorrow, with a request for expeditious disposal of the same,” it added.
On March 12, NCLT had stayed RITL’s asset sales (tower and fibre) till April 6, on a petition filed by HSBC Daisy Investments (Mauritius) Ltd, accusing the company of oppression of minority shareholders and mismanagement.
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