RCom Insolvency: CoC expects to raise Rs 14,000 cr from assets

MUMBAI: The committee of creditors (CoC) overseeing the bankruptcy resolution of Reliance Communications (RCom) expects to raise at least Rs 14,000 crore from the sale of the telco’s assets, including spectrum, fibre and towers, based on bids received, said people with knowledge of the matter.“The final round of negotiations with the four bidders will start now since the deadline for resolution is January 10,” said one of them, a CoC member.“The bids that have come in are good… the CoC expects to touch Rs 14,000 crore at least.”At that level, the haircut would be about 70% for financial lenders that have filed claims of Rs 49,000 crore against RCom and its units Reliance Telecom and Reliance Infratel.Assets up for sale include airwaves in the 850 MHz band in 14 of India’s 22 telecom circles, about 43,000 telecom towers, some fibre and data centres. Bharti Airtel has made the highest bid of Rs 9,000 crore and has offered upfront payment but wants all the assets and not parts of it, said the people cited above. However, the CoC feels it will get better value by selling the assets separately.“Jio interestingly has bid only for the tower and fibre assets with an upfront payment offer of Rs 3,600 crore,” one of the persons said. Private equity fund Varde Partners and UV Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd (UVARCL) have said they will pick up the assets as a going concern and repay lenders as and when they manage to sell them.“UVARCL has said they already have a spectrum sale deal worth Rs 11,000 crore,” said the person.There’s nothing to stop any telco, including Reliance Jio Infocomm, from buying spectrum from the asset reconstruction company at a later stage, he said.Airtel, Jio, UVARCL and RCom didn’t respond to queries. Varde declined to comment. A Deloitte spokesperson said, “We are bound by confidentiality obligations and are unable to comment on client-specific matters.”

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