RCom group owes about Rs 26,000 cr to Indian banks, financial institutions

Debt-ridden telecom firm Reliance Communications said the group owes around Rs 26,000 crore to Indian banks and financial institutions

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Debt-ridden telecom firm Reliance Communications on Wednesday said the group owes around Rs 26,000 crore to Indian banks and financial institutions.

The Indians banks, vendors and other creditors have made claims of around Rs 86,000 crore on the company which is currently going through insolvency proceedings.

"As per figures certified by the Resolution Professional appointed by the lenders, the RCOM group owed around Rs 26,000 crore to Indian banks and financial institutions as on the date of filing before the NCLT," Reliance Communications (RCom) said in a statement.

The creditors have submitted claims of around Rs 49,000 crore on RCom, Rs 24,000 crore on Reliance Telecom and Rs 12,600 crore on Reliance Infratel before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

"The alleged 'fraud' classification by certain banks is entirely unjustified and unwarranted, and the Hon'ble Delhi High Court by an interim order has directed the same to be kept in abeyance for the time being, and the matter is now sub judice," RCom said.

It further said that the Resolution Plans unanimously agreed by the lenders are at various stages of approval before the NCLT, and upon implementation thereof, the lenders are likely to recover at least 70 per cent of their dues, with potential subsequent upside.

"The financial stress in the telecom sector, owing inter alia to the entry of a new player in 2016 with unlimited free offerings, was not unique to Rcom, but decimated the entire industry, and led to the shutdown of services by Aircel, Sistema, Videocon, Tata Docomo and several other players, and also severely impacted the financials of global giants like Vodafone in its Indian operations," RCom said.

The company said that Vodafone Idea has reported losses aggregating Rs 1 lakh crore in the last 15 months.