RCom creditors panel to vote on Rs 23,000-cr resolution plans on 24 February; loans of Chinese lenders to reduce by nearly 65%

New Delhi: The Committee of Creditors of Reliance Communications (RCom) on February 24 will put to a vote asset bids received from UV Asset Reconstruction Company and Reliance Jio from which lenders are expected to recover around Rs 23,000 crore, according to sources privy to the development. UV Asset Reconstruction Company is learnt to have placed a bid of around Rs 14,700 crore while Reliance Jio has made an offer of Rs 4,700 crore for tower and fibre assets of Reliance Infratel Ltd. There will also be claw back of Rs 4,300 crore of priority payments made to Chinese and Indian creditors. “With this resolution plan, the 38 lenders of RCom will recover over 70 percent of their outstanding of about Rs 33,000 crore. In the case of Bhushan Steel and Essar Steel, the recovery to lenders was 63 percent and 60 percent, respectively, as per the IBBI website,” the source said. [caption id=“attachment_4474691” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] “Loans of Chinese lenders to reduce by nearly 65 percent i.e., by Rs 8,000 crore from about Rs 12,000 crore to around Rs 4,000 crore,” a banking source aware of the process said. Jio placed bid for tower and fibre assets of Reliance Infratel Ltd. (RITL) and UVARC for assets of RCom and Reliance Telecom Ltd. RCom’s secured debt is estimated to be around Rs 33,000 crore. Lenders submitted claims of around Rs 49,000 crore in August. RCom has put all of its assets on sale which include spectrum holding of 122 MHz, tower business, optical fibre network and data centres. “The bidders have committed to pay 30 percent of the proceeds of around Rs 7,500 crore within 90 days,” the source said. As per the NCLT order, the CoC had to complete the entire process by 10 January but it sought extension in deadline. The Resolution Professional (RP), Deloitte, is expected to file resolution plan with the NCLT Mumbai on 5 March. 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.