RCom, Reliance Jio extend validity of wireless asset sale pact to 28 June

New Delhi: Reliance Communications and Reliance Jio announced on Monday that they have extended the terms of an agreement for sale of wireless assets of the Anil Ambani owned firm. The move comes at a time when Reliance Communication’s spectrum sale deal has been hanging fire, pending requisite clearance from the telecom department. “Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited, extended the term of the definitive agreement for the acquisition of specified assets of Reliance Communications Limited and its affiliates to 28th June 2019,” Reliance Industries said in a regulatory filing Monday. The acquisition is subject to receipt of requisite approvals from governmental and regulatory authorities, consents from all lenders, the release of all encumbrances on the said assets and other conditions, it said. [caption id=“attachment_4473553” align=“alignleft” width=“300”] RCom. File photo. Reuters.[/caption] In a separate filing, Reliance Communications said the company and Reliance Jio have “extended the validity of the agreements signed on 28th December 2017 for sale of towers, fiber, MCNs and spectrum of RCOM and its affiliates to 28th June 2019”. “The transactions are to be consummated subject to various approvals that are presently in progress,” RCom added. Reliance Communications has been urging the telecom department to grant it the “long-awaited no-objection certificate” to comply with a Supreme Court order in “letter and spirit”. Senior officials of Reliance Communications and Reliance Jio had also met the telecom secretary this month to discuss outstanding issues raised by Department of Telecom (DoT) overpayment related to spectrum sale deal between the two companies. The Anil Ambani-owned company had maintained that it remains committed to discharging any outstanding or disputed amount subject to final adjudication. Reliance Communications had earlier asserted that the requirement of giving bank guarantee as per DoT’s demand has been substituted by the orders of telecom tribunal and the Supreme Court, and that its unit Reliance Realty had provided a non-disposal undertaking and corporate guarantee. “Hence, compliance with the trading guidelines is met,” RCom had asserted in an earlier statement. However, the DoT has, so far, held to its position that the deal cannot be cleared unless there is clarity on payment of dues and associated charges, particularly as the Mukesh Ambani-led Jio has refused to take any payment liability of his younger sibling’s firm RCom to conclude the spectrum trading deal between the two firms. (Disclosure - Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd)