Reliance Infratel goes to Jio for Rs 3,720 crore for asset acquisition

Reliance Projects and Property Management Services — a subsidiary of telecom major Reliance Jio — has deposited Rs 3,720 crore in an SBI escrow account to acquire mobile tower and fibre assets of Reliance Infratel. 

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) gave an approval to Jio for the acquisition of Reliance Infratel (RITL) in November.

In a stock market notification on Thursday, Reliance Jio indicated that shares and zero-coupon optionally fully convertible debentures were issued by Reliance Infratel to subsidiary Reliance Projects and Property Management Services for Rs 3,720 crore. 

The Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio had placed a bid of Rs 3,720 crore in November 2019 to acquire the tower and fibre asset of debt-ridden subsidiary of his younger brother Anil Ambani-managed firm Reliance Communications.

The tribunal had asked Jio to deposit Rs 3,720 crore in the State Bank of India (SBI) escrow account to complete the acquisition of RCOM’s tower and fibre assets.

The Committee of Creditors had already approved the resolution plan by Jio on March 4, 2020 with a 100 per cent vote. Reliance Infratel has fibre assets of about 178,000 route kilometres and 43,540 mobile towers across the country.

The funds will be distributed among lenders once the inter-creditor dispute over the distribution of resolution funds is settled.

SBI and a few other banks, including Doha Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, and Emirates Bank, are engaged in a legal battle over the distribution of funds. The matter is pending before the Supreme Court. Doha Bank had challenged the classification of claims from the indirect creditors of RITL as the financial creditors by the resolution professional.