Airtel, Reliance Jio bid for RCom telecom assets; decision on Friday

Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Varde Capital and UV Asset Reconstruction Company have submitted bids to buy assets of debt-ridden Reliance Communications, according to banking sources involved in the process.

RCom committee of creditors, which was to open the bid on Monday, has decided to meet again on Friday to finalise the winner, sources said.

"Bharti, Reliance Jio, Varde Capital and UVARCL have submitted their bids. Total 11 bids have come for the assets of three companies - RCom, Reliance Telecom and Reliance Infratel Limited," sources said.

I Sqaured Capital, which was expected to buy for RCom's data centre and optical fibre, did not submit bid, sources added.

RCom's secured debt is estimated to be around Rs 33,000 crore. Lenders have submitted claims of around Rs 49,000 crore in August.

"The CoC (committee of creditors) will meet again on Friday to finalise the bids," sources added.

RCom has put its all assets for sale which include spectrum holding of 122 MHz that the company before insolvency proceedings estimated to be around Rs 14,000 crore, towers business for Rs 7,000 crore, optical fibre network Rs 3,000 crore and data centres worth Rs 4,000 crore.

As per NCLT order, resolution professional (RP) has to complete the process by 10 January, 2020.

RCom in the past had tried to sell assets to various companies, including Reliance Jio, to clear debt but the deals did not crystallise. Reliance Jio cancelled agreement to buy RCom assets, including spectrum, as it did not want to bear the past liabilities of the debt-ridden firm.

Later, the insolvency proceedings against RCom started on a plea filed by Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson after the company failed to clear its dues.

RCom Chairman Anil Ambani has tendered his resignation after the company posted a consolidated loss of Rs 30,142 crore for July-September 2019 due to provisioning for liabilities after the Supreme Court ruling on statutory dues.

This was the second-highest loss posted by any Indian corporate till date.

The CoC has, however, rejected Ambani's resignation and asked to cooperate in insolvency proceedings.