Reliance Jio to acquire wireless infra assets of RCom

RCom will utilise proceeds of monetisation of cash deal solely for payment of debt to its lenders

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio will acquire mobile business assets including spectrum, mobile towers and optical fibre network of Reliance Communications-- owned by his younger brother Anil Ambani.

"Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited, today announced signing of definitive agreement for the acquisition of specified assets of Reliance Communications Limited and its affiliates," Reliance Jio said in a statement.

The deal is slated to bring relief to RCom, which is reeling under debt of around Rs 45,000 crore.

Reliance Jio or its nominees will acquire assets under four categories - Towers, Optic Fiber Cable Network ("OFC"), Spectrum and Media Convergence Nodes ("MCN") from RCOM and its affiliates.

"These assets are strategic in nature and are expected to contribute significantly to the large scale roll-out of wireless and Fiber-to-Home and Enterprise services by RJIL," the statement said.

Reliance Jio will acquire all the assets without any previous liabilities attached to them.

"The acquisition is subject to receipt of requisite approvals from governmental and regulatory authorities, consents from all lenders, release of all encumbrances on the said assets and other conditions precedent. The consideration is payable at completion and is subject to adjustments as specified in the agreement," the statement said.

Reliance Jio said process to acquire assets of RCom is supervised by an independent group of distinguished industry experts and it emerged as the successful bidder in the two- stage bidding process.

"An asset monetisation process for RCOM assets was mandated by the lenders of RCOM, who appointed SBI Capital Markets Limited to run the process," the statement said.

The parties are bound by confidentiality obligations and will make further disclosures at the appropriate time.

RJIL is being advised by Goldman Sachs, Citigroup Global Markets, JM Financial Private Limited, Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Khaitan & Co and Ernst & Young on this transaction, the statement said.