Debt-laden Reliance Communications has received bondholders’ approval to sell certain wireless assets to Reliance Jio Infocomm, as well as to monetise its real-estate assets. The holders of the debt-laden telecom operator’s $300 million bonds approved the proposal with an overwhelming majority at a meeting held in London on Tuesday .

RCom also got approval for the partial release of note-holder collateral for the sales, the company said in a statement, adding the proceeds will be used for partial redemption of notes.

The approval enables RCom to sell assets including spectrum, tower, optical fibre network and wireless infrastructure and real-estate assets to pare debt. The bonds were issued in May 2015 at 6.5 per cent interest, with a maturity date in 2020.

On December 28, 2017, Mukesh Ambani-led RJio had emerged the white knight to acquire the wireless assets of debt-laden RCom, controlled by his younger sibling Anil. While the companies did not divulge the financial details, banking sources pegged the deal at about ₹23,000 crore.

This is one among a series of deals between the brothers who had parted ways in 2005, carving the Reliance empire into two.

RJio, a wholly-owned subsidiary of RIL, emerged the successful bidder in a two-stage bidding process. The company will 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, 1,800 and 2,100 MHz bands, and 248 Media Convergence Nodes. These assets are expected to contribute significantly to the large-scale rollout of RJio’s wireless, fibre-to-home and enterprise services.

The monetisation of RCom’s assets was mandated by its lenders, who appointed SBI Capital Markets to run the process. It was supervised by an independent group of distinguished industry experts.

RCom shares, which rallied as much as 15 per cent on Wednesday, ended up 8.86 per cent at ₹25.20 on a steady BSE, which closed up 0.42 per cent.

rajesh.kurup@thehindu.co.in

Related Topics