The Committee of Creditors (CoC) of beleaguered Reliance Communications (RCom) will meet on Thursday to take a call on the bids it received from four companies and to seek an extension to complete the resolution process.
“A meeting is scheduled for tomorrow to take all the bids on account, following which it would take another of couple of weeks to finalise a winner. A further delay is expected as the CoC has to meet every bidder and negotiate the final price, following which it will finalise a winner based on voting by the members,” a source close to the development told BusinessLine .
Earlier, RCom, a company controlled by Anil Ambani, had received a total of 11 bids from four companies for assets housed under various subsidiaries, including that from India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio). The others in the fray were Sunil Mittal-backed Bharti Airtel, PE firm Varde Partners and UV Asset Reconstruction Company (UVARCL).
The CoC, a committee of all creditors who have provided loans to the debtor, also plans to seek an extension by atleast another 20 days to complete the process. The last date for the completion of the resolution process is January 10, following an extension received earlier from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
Last month, Bharti Airtel placed bids worth ₹3,000 crore for RCom’s assets, with the New Delhi-headquartered company placing a ₹950-crore bid for spectrum, ₹100 crore for Reliance Telecom Ltd (RTL) and another ₹1,900 crore for the tower and fibre assets owned by RCom subsidiary Reliance Infratel (RITL).
Varde Partners and UVARCL have also bid for all the three companies, and have offered to monetise the assets, including spectrum, and distribute proceeds to the lenders.
RCom’s assets include spectrum, tower, fibre, media convergence nodes and real estate, housed under three companies — RCom, Reliance Telecom and Reliance Infratel (RITL). RCom and RTL hold spectrum, while RITL has tower and fibre.