Reliance Comm launches share sale at 142.13/share

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Reliance Communications Ltd said on Tuesday it is launching a share sale to institutional investors as the telecommunications company looks to reduce debt.

The company said it would sell shares for 142.13 rupees each, or a discount of 5 percent to the floor price, but the company did not specify the number of shares being sold in the offering.

Reliance communication shares closed at 151.35 rupees on Tuesday on the National Stock Exchange.

Sources had told Reuters earlier the company is likely to raise $500 million through the share sale.

The company will separately also issue up to 86.7 million share warrants to its promoters for about $217 million as part of the capital raising, Reliance said.

Reliance Communications, headed by billionaire Anil Ambani, had as of end-March a net debt of 401.78 billion rupees ($6.7 billion), or more than five times its operating profit, making it the most-leveraged among listed Indian carriers.

(Reporting by Himank Sharma; Editing by Anand Basu)