Reliance Jio, Airtel likely to bid for RCom's physical assets; firms not keen to buy spectrum held by telco

New Delhi: Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have expressed interest in bidding for physical telecom infrastructure of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications (RCom) which is undergoing insolvency proceedings, a source privy to the development told PTI.

The two companies, however, are not interested in buying spectrum held by RCom, the source said.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in May superseded RCom board and appointed a resolution to run the company and also allowed the SBI-led consortium of 31 banks to form a committee of creditors.

“Jio and Airtel are not interested in the spectrum because there is no clarity on the sale and transfer of the airwaves to them. In any case, both the companies will need to pay the market rate of the spectrum to complete the deal. Therefore, it is better to buy it in the spectrum auction,” the source said.

Reliance Jio in December 2017, had signed a mega-deal with RCom for buying wireless spectrum, tower, fibre and media convergence nodes assets.

RCom announced the completion of sale of its media convergence nodes and related infrastructure assets, worth Rs 2,000 crore to Jio in August 2018. Later, Jio called off several deals that were under process.

In June, claims against RCom had risen to Rs 57,382.5 crore with new entities, including some Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group companies, joining the creditors’ list, according to a regulatory filing, reported PTI.

Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) Pardeep Kumar Sethi, however, admitted dues of Rs 30 crore out of fresh claims of Rs 8,189 crore, taking admitted claims so far to Rs 49,223.88 crore, RCom said in the filing.

Reliance ADA Group firms account for Rs 7,000.63 crore of fresh claims against the group firm RCom.

The filing said the fresh claims except for admitted dues have been put for verification.

— With PTI inputs