RCom arm Reliance Realty gets nod to develop DAKC into Fintech Centre

Debt-ridden telecom operator Reliance Communications (RCom)'s subsidiary Reliance Realty will develop the Maharashtra’s first and largest Smart Fintech Centre in Navi Mumbai, RCom announced on Monday. The Department of Information Technology, Government of Maharashtra and the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) granted approval to Reliance Realty to develop the Smart Fintech Centre at its Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC) in Navi Mumbai, under the Government of Maharashtra’s new Fintech Policy.

The company will develop 132 acres of land in DAKC with a total saleable area of 30 million square feet. Last year, at the 14th annual general meeting (AGM), RCom chairman Anil Ambani bid adieu to the telecom business, owing to intense slugfest in the sector. He unveiled a new source of redemption through development plans for the 133-acre Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC) in Navi Mumbai.

Last week, The company said that not all of its 37 lenders were able to come to a consensus despite 12 months of discussion and more than 45 meetings on clearing the sale of assets to Reliance Jio unanimously as required under the RBI rule, which has been challenged in the Supreme Court. The company is now seeking relaxation of the 100 per cent consensus rule, as in case of the IBC, a minimum of 66 per cent of the members endorsing a proposal is enough to give the resolution proposal a clearance. So far 95-97 per cent of the creditors already voted for the sale of the RCom telecom assets.

Company executives said while there was consensus on the sale of the telecom assets to enable RCom to repay a substantial part of the Rs 38,000 crore of debt, there was no consensus on how the cash would be distributed among banks with varying exposures. Further, its plea would not be followed by any bidding process for the assets and floating an expression of interest, as in an insolvency case.