RCom falls 12% on reports DoT has rejected its spectrum deal with Jio

Shares of RCom fell as much as 12 per cent to Rs 13.77 apiece on BSE after a news report suggested that the DoT has told RCom and Reliance Jio Infocomm that it can't approve their spectrum deal

Shares of Reliance Communications (RCom) fell as much as 12 per cent to Rs 13.77 apiece on BSE in the intra-day trade on Wednesday after a news report suggested that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Tuesday, told RCom and Reliance Jio Infocomm that it can’t approve their spectrum deal to trade airwaves as it does not adhere to its guidelines.

The exchange has sought clarification from RCom on December 19, 2018 in reference to news appeared in The Economic Times dated December 19, 2018 quoting "DoT rejects RCom-Jio spectrum trading deal", as per the corporate announcement on BSE.

Although on Friday, DoT had told the Supreme Court that it was ready to provide the company a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for spectrum and asset sale to Jio.

As a part of debt reduction efforts, Anil Ambani-led RCom had, in December 2017, signed a Rs 250-billion deal with elder brother Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio. The deal included the sale of assets mortgaged with different banks to avoid insolvency proceedings. The company expected to raise Rs 180 billion from sales of its wireless assets to RJio and real estate assets to Canada's Brookfield, and pare some of its Rs 460-billion debt.

Earlier, the apex court had asked RCom to furnish a corporate guarantee of Rs 14 billion within 2 days, following which DoT had to give it a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for the RCom-RJio spectrum sale deal within 7 days. All went as planned. RCom furnished the guarantee amount and the DoT agreed to give RCom the green signal. READ HERE

At 11.05 am, shares of Reliance Communications were trading 7.29 per cent lower at Rs 14.63 on BSE as compared to a 0.26 per cent rise in S&P BSE Sensex.