RCom completes sale of some assets to Reliance Jio for Rs 20 billion

Reliance Communications on Thursday said it has completed the planned sale of its media convergence nodes (MCNs) and related infrastructure assets, worth Rs 20 billion, to Mukesh Ambani-backed Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIO).

The transaction entailed 248 nodes covering close to 5 million sq. ft. of the area, used for hosting the telecom infrastructure, all of which now stands transferred to Jio, RCom said in a statement.

"Reliance Communications Limited (RCOM) today announced the completion of the sale of its MCNs and related infrastructure assets, worth Rs 20 billion, to Reliance Jio Infocomm," the RCom statement said.

Earlier this month, Reliance Communications had reinstated bank guarantees worth Rs 7.74 billion with the telecom department ahead of the timeline set by the telecom tribunal, and had said that its Rs 250 billion asset sale plans are "on track".

Last year, Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Communications signed a pact with Reliance Jio for sale of wireless spectrum, tower, fiber and MCN assets - the proceeds of which were to be used to reduce debt.

The deal announced in December 2017, packed in 122.4 MHz of 4G spectrum in the 800/900/1800/2100 MHz bands, over 43,000 towers, 1,78,000 kilometres of fibre and 248 media convergence nodes. The nodes' sale concluded today represents the initial tranche of the planned, larger deal.