India's National Company Law Appellate Tribunal stayed insolvency proceedings against Reliance Communications Ltd. and its subsidiaries Reliance Infratel Ltd. and Reliance Telecom Ltd.
RCom said May 30 that the appellate court allowed the embattled Indian telco to proceed with the planned sale of its assets to Reliance Jio and Brookfield for an aggregate value of 181 billion Indian rupees.
The deal with Reliance Jio packs in 122.4 MHz of 4G spectrum in the 800/900/1800/2100 MHz bands, over 43,000 towers, 1,78,000 kilometers of fiber and 248 media convergence nodes. Meanwhile, the transaction with Canada-based asset manager Brookfield involves real estate assets in Delhi and Chennai. RCom expects to complete the sale of its assets within the next few weeks.
The tribunal's order came after Ericsson India Pvt. Ltd., which initiated the insolvency proceedings in September 2017, accepted RCom's offer to pay 5.5 billion rupees to settle their dispute over unpaid dues. According to The Hindu, if the settlement amount is not paid to Ericsson within 120 days, the appellate tribunal may revive the insolvency process against RCom. A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 4, when Ericsson needs to confirm it has received the settlement amount.
The Indian National Company Law Tribunal admitted three pleas by Ericsson to put RCom into bankruptcy and insolvency processes to recover pending dues. RCom and its subsidiaries then filed petitions to the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, which hears appeals against orders passed by the National Company Law Tribunal.
In December 2017, RCom revealed plans to cut its debt by 85% through the sale of several assets and receiving equity infusion from global strategic partners.
As of May 30, US$1 was equivalent to 67.48 Indian rupees.
