Four sovereign wealth funds, including Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and China Investment Corp (CIC), have agreed to invest in the initial public offering (IPO) of Reliance Communications Ltd’s undersea cable unit Global Telecommunication Infrastructure Trust.
Four sovereign wealth funds from Singapore, West Asia and China have confirmed participation of $250 to 300 million in the GTI Trust’s IPO, sources privy to the development said.
Besides Temasek and CIC, Investment Corp of Dubai too has confirmed participation in Global Telecommunications Infrastructure Trust’s public offering in Singapore.
When contacted, RCOM declined to comment.
RCom is looking at listing Flag Telecom through a Singapore business trust, Global Telecommunications Infrastructure Trust (GTIT) on the Singapore stock exchange.
It wasn’t immediately clear how much Temasek or CIC are investing.
GTIT owns four subsea cable systems that carry Internet traffic and data around the globe. Deutsche Bank AG, DBS Group Holdings Ltd, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd and Standard Chartered Plc are lead managers for the offering.
Sources said the company has extended the closing date for institutional book-building process by a day, and the same will now end on Friday.
On Monday, it had extended the closing date for its IPO by three days to Thursday. The institutional book-building period for the offer had started on July 9.
The telecom major plans to use the proceeds from the Singapore listing of GTIT to pare some of its Rs 35,839 crore debts.
Flag Telecom was acquired by the then undivided Reliance Group for $207 million (less than Rs 1,000 crore) in 2003.
As part of the telecom portfolio of the erstwhile Reliance group, Flag Telecom later came into the fold of Anil Ambani-led group after the split between two Ambani brothers.
In recent past, RCom has been exploring various routes of raising funds, including selling stake in its telecom tower arm Reliance Infratel, a move that will help the company retire a major chunk of debt on its books.
As of March 31, 2012, the company has a net debt of Rs 35,839.3 crore on its books.