Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Communications (RCom) on March 18 said its deal with Reliance Jio for sale of certain telecom assets has been terminated with mutual consent. RCom cited the lack of approval from lenders and regulators as the main reason for the termination.
The RCom group said the decision was taken by the board of directors on February 1, to seek fast track resolution of Reliance Communication's debt through National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
On February 4, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) restrained the sale, transfer or alienation of any movable or immovable property of RCom following an appeal by Ericsson.
"The statements of the lenders, as recorded in the order dated 15th March 2019 of the Hon'ble NCLAT, that it is not possible for them to sell the specified assets, and therefore, the NCLT process for debt resolution should be reinstated," RCom said in an exchange filing.
The next NCLAT hearing has been scheduled for April 8, 2019.
"RCOM Group is committed to a comprehensive resolution of their overall debt, with transparency, certainty and finality, through the NCLT process," the statement added.
In December 2017, Mukesh Ambani had offered to acquire RCom's tower, spectrum, optical fiber network and other wireless assets for Rs 18,000 crore. The deal had helped avert a takeover by over 35 lenders to whom RCom owed Rs 45,000 crore. It included a sale of 122.4 MHz of 4G Spectrum in the 800/900/1800/2100 MHz bands, over 43,000 towers, 178,000 kilometres of fiber and 248 media convergence nodes.
However, the transaction was delayed as the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) asked Jio to takeover RCom's arrears too. Jio refused to do so, prompting the DoT to withhold the no-objection certificate for the deal.
RCom said it never received the requisite permissions and approvals from DoT for asset sale which was one of the major reasons for the deal failing to go through.
Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.
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