'RCom's Flag Tele to file for $1.5 billion IPO in Singapore'

Flag Telecom, controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications , has filed initial papers on the Singapore Stock Exchange to raise up to $1.5 billion through an initial public offering, the Business Standard reported.

The transaction is likely to be completed by the second week of May, the newspaper said, citing the prospectus filed on Friday.

Reliance Communications, India’s second-largest mobile firm by users, has long been trying to raise funds by selling assets to cut its debt - $6.9 billion as of December. The company plans to sell 75 percent of the wholly-owned unit, the newspaper said.

Deutsche Bank, DBS of Singapore, Standard Chartered and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China are managing the issue, it said. A company spokesman declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.

Reliance Communications acquired the FLAG undersea cable network for $207 million in 2003, and the business is now part of its Reliance Globalcom unit, which owns the world’s largest private undersea cable system spanning 65,000 kilometres.

In December 2009, sources had told Reuters that Reliance Communications hoped to raise around $3 billion by selling the undersea cable business. It found no takers.

Reuters