Reliance Jio buys RCom's wireless business, 43,000 towers; deal to be completed by March 2018

Mumbai: Reliance Jio, telecom arm of Reliance Industries, on Thursday said it has bought “specified” assets of Reliance Communications, telecom company of Reliance Group led by Anil Ambani. The deal signed is for sale of RCom’s wireless spectrum, tower, fiber and media convergence node (MCN) assets. “Consequent to the agreement, RJIL or its nominees will acquire assets under four categories – towers, optic fiber cable network (OFC), spectrum and media,” RIL said in a statement. The telecom arm of Reliance Group has been looking for ways to shed Rs 45,000 crore debt and has plans to bring it down to Rs 6,000 crore by March 2018. Thursday’s “definitive binding agreement” comes as a result of RCom’s  concerted effort for a smooth sale of its telecom assets. According to the RIL press release, the acquisition is subject to receipt of requisite approvals from government and some regulatory authorities, consents from all lenders, release of all encumbrances on the said assets. [caption id=“attachment_816745” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Reliance Communications. Reuters.[/caption] RCom said it has worked closely with all lenders and SBI Capital Markets, the advisors appointed by the lenders, to run a competitive process for the monetisation of its telecom assets, comprising: 122.4 MHz of 4G spectrum in the 800, 900, 1,800 and 2,100 MHz bands, over 43,000 towers, nearly 1,78,000 rkm of fiber with pan India footprint and 248 media convergence nodes, covering 5 million sq ft used for hosting telecom infrastructure. RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio emerged as the highest bidder in the process conducted under the supervision of a high-powered bid evaluation committee, comprising experts from banking, telecom and law, RCom said. The company expects the transactions to close in a phased manner between January and March 2018, subject to lenders’ and other approvals. The Reliance Jio-RCom deal comprises cash payment and includes transfer of deferred spectrum installments payable to the department of telecommunication (DoT). RCom said it will utilise the proceeds from the sale of its telecom assets towards pre-payment of debt to its lenders. (Disclosure - Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & InvestmentsLtd)