Lenders to beleaguered telecom operator Reliance Communications have received bids worth ₹25,000 crore for its assets put on sale, with Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio) and UV Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd (UVARCL) emerging as the highest bidders.

Also read: RCom bankruptcy proceedings: Prospects of early start look bleak

RJio has placed a ₹4,700-crore bid for tower and fibre assets of Reliance Infratel Ltd (RITL), a subsidiary of RCom. UVARC’s bid was at ₹16,000 crore for spectrum, real estate assets, enterprise and data centre businesses held by RCom and another subsidiary, Reliance Telecom Ltd (RTL).

There was a meeting of the Committee of Creditors (CoC) on Monday to finalise the bids, sources close to the development told BusinessLine .

Read more: RJio emerges top bidder for RCom tower, fibre assets

₹33,000-crore debt

The bidders have committed to pay 30 per cent of the proceeds within 90 days. The 38 lenders to RCom would recover 75 per cent of the total outstanding ₹33,000 crore, the sources said. This would be the highest-ever recovery of dues by financial creditors in the telecom sector, which has seen the exit or shut down of 9 companies since 2012.

In addition, the lenders will also claw back priority payments of ₹4,300 crore of which ₹1,300 crore was made to Chinese lenders and ₹3,000 crore to Indian lenders.

The lenders will start getting monetisation proceeds from March, they added.

The CoC members have to get approvals from respective boards to put in their final vote to approve RCom’s resolution plans by January 31. The resolution professional has to file it before the National Company Law Tribunal by February 3.

Earlier, RCom had received a total of 11 bids from four companies for assets housed under various subsidiaries.

 

Also read: Airtel withdraws RCom bid, citing unfair treatment

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