RCom no longer in talks with Batelco for unit stake sale

Instead it is in talks with a private equity consortium that included Samena Capital

Reliance Communications Ltd, India's third-biggest cellular carrier by customers, said on Saturday it is no longer in talks with Bahrain Telecommunications Co (Batelco) for selling a stake in its enterprise business unit.

Instead, the company said, it is in talks with a private equity consortium that included Samena Capital and hoped to complete the deal by May-end.

"Samena Capital, in a proposed consortium with certain other global PE funds, is at an advanced stage of the process of due diligence and completion of definitive documents in relation to the acquisition of Reliance Globalcom Ltd," Reliance Communications said in a statement.

It did not name the other members of the consortium and also did not say why its talks with Batelco did not go ahead.

Reliance Communications and Batelco said last month they were in talks over the Indian carrier's enterprise business unit, which includes its undersea cable business. The sale of the unit is crucial to cut Reliance communications' heavy debt load.