<p>Reliance Communications today said it has put on hold the initial public offering of its undersea cable unit Flag Telecom in Singapore because of adverse market conditions.
"The company states that it will await supportive market conditions and easing of prevailing global uncertainties to proceed with the offering or listing at an appropriate time in the future, in order to unlock the full value of the Flag Telecom assets," RCom said in a statement.
The IPO, which was to raise about $1 billion, was put on hold on a day when institutional book building was to close.
RCom was looking at listing Flag Telecom through a Singapore business trust, Global Telecommunications Infrastructure Trust (GTIT) on the Singapore stock exchange.
"Subsequent updates will be provided to the stock exchanges and relevant authorities in due course," the statement said.
GTI Trust 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 were lead managers for the offering.
Sources said the company had extended the closing date for institutional book-building process by a day, and it was to end today.
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 had planned to use the proceeds from the Singapore listing of GTI to pare some of its Rs 35,839.3 crore debts.
Sources said RCom is not in a rush to sell the assets and can afford to wait for positive market conditions, as it has already refinanced its FCCB of $1.2 billion in March with long term Chinese loan. 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 the two Ambani brothers.
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.
"Before printing, think about ENVIRONMENTAL responsibility."
