Bharti Airtel, State-Run Banks And Insurers Bid For RCom’s Telecom Assets
Bharti Airtel and an asset reconstruction company are among those bidding for assets of Reliance Communications and its units.
At least half a dozen companies have bid for the assets of Reliance Communications Ltd. as the debt-ridden telecom operator heads into insolvency proceedings.
Bharti Airtel Ltd., UV Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd.—among India’s top 10 asset reconstruction firms and promoted by six state-run banks and two insurers—and Singapore’s VFSI Holdings Pte. Ltd. have submitted bids for the Anil Ambani-owned telecom operator and two of its units, according to an exchange filing. The resolution plans received from these parties, the filing said, were presented to the committee of creditors of the corporate debtor at a meeting held on Nov. 25.
Bharti Airtel, billionaire Mukesh Ambani-backed Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., Varde Partners and UVARCL had submitted bids, the newswire PTI reported citing people in the know. It also said that as many as 11 bids were received for the assets of Reliance Communications, Reliance Telecom Ltd. and Reliance Infratel Ltd.
That comes as the operator’s fortunes dwindled due to cut-throat competition and tariff wars launched with the entry of Reliance Jio in 2016—which initially offered free data followed by dirt-cheap tariffs. Unable to withstand Jio’s onslaught, RCom shut its mobile voice operations in Dec. 2017.
Reliance Communications owed creditors nearly Rs 57,383 crore at the time of being taken to bankruptcy court in June last year, according to data on its website. China Development Bank, Life Insurance Corporation of India and State Bank of India are the largest among the 41 creditors to the stressed mobile operator.
Reliance Communications’ assets include spectrum, towers, fibre cables, data centres and real estate. Reliance Jio, promoted by Anil Ambani’s elder brother Mukesh, had last year agreed to buy the spectrum, towers assets and optical fibre network of Reliance Communications, but the deal failed to secure clearance from the Department of Telecommunications.
The company’s Chairman Anil Ambani resigned after it posted a consolidated loss of Rs 30,142 crore for the quarter ended September on the back of provisioning for liabilities after the Supreme Court’s ruling on statutory dues. The committee of creditors, however, rejected the resignation and asked him to participate in insolvency proceedings.