Rel Jio set to bag RCom’s tower, fiber assets with Rs3,600-cr bid
11 Dec 2019
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Reliance Jio has bid Rs3,600 crore, the highest among all bidders, for mobile tower and optical fibre assets of bankrupt Reliance Infratel, according to banking sources.
Against this, its main rival Bharti Airtel has placed bid for around Rs1,800 crore for the same, according to the sources.
Bharti Airtel has placed bids worth Rs3,000 crore for all the assets, including 4G spectrum, of the beleaguered telecom operator Reliance Communications (RCom).
Bharti Airtel, however, has set conditions for acquiring the spectrum of Reliance Communications, which, according to sources, would make it difficult for the resolution professional to close the process by 10 January as directed by the NCLT.
Reliance Jio did not bid for Rcom’s spectrum.
Reliance Communications, which is under insolvency proceedings at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), has put all its assets for sale, which include spectrum holding of 122 MHz, which was estimated to be worth around Rs14,000 crore, tower business worth Rs7,000 crore, optical fibre network worth Rs3,000 crore and data centres worth Rs4,000 crore.
"Reliance Infratel's tower and fibre is likely to go to Reliance Jio as its bid of Rs 3,600 crore is the highest and the company has committed to make the payment in 60 days. Bharti Airtel has placed a bid of Rs 1,800 crore for the same," reports citing a banking source said.
VFSI Holdings Pte Ltd and UV Asset Reconstruction Company Limited have also submitted their bids for the assets of RCom.
RCom's secured debt is estimated to be around Rs33,000 crore. Lenders have submitted claims of around Rs49,000 crore in August.
According to an NCLT order, RP has to complete the process by 10 January 2020.
RCom in the past has tried to sell assets to various companies, including Reliance Jio, to clear debts but the deals did not crystallise. Reliance Jio cancelled the agreement to buy RCom assets as it did not want to bear the previous liabilities of the debt-ridden firm.
It was Swedish telecom gear maker that kicked off the insolvency proceeding against RCom on a plea filed after the company failed to clear its dues.
RCom chairman Anil Ambani had tendered his resignation after the company posted a consolidated loss of Rs30,142 crore for July-September 2019 due to provisioning for liabilities after the Supreme Court ruling on statutory dues.
The CoC, however, rejected Ambani's resignation and asked to cooperate in insolvency proceedings.
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