Rel Comm to sell wireless assets to Reliance Jio for debt reduction

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Dec 28 (ANI): Anil Ambani led Reliance Communications Ltd. (RCOM) on Thursday signed a binding definitive agreement with Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIO) for sale of valuable wireless spectrum, towers, fiber, and Media Convergence Node (MCN) assets to reduce its debt by Rs. 25,000 crore.

"The transaction will be closed in a phased manner from January to March 2018 and the entire proceeds will be used for RCOM's debt reduction only," said the statement issued by the company.

The RJIO deal consideration comprises primarily of cash payment and includes transfer of deferred spectrum instalments payable to the Department of Telecommunication (DoT).

As per the deal, Reliance Jio will acquire RCom's assets including 122.4 MHz of 4G Spectrum in the 800/900/1800/2100 MHz bands.

It will take over 43,000 towers, amongst the top three independent tower holdings in India, 1,78,000 RKM of fiber with pan India footprint

"248 Media Convergence Nodes, covering five million sqft used for hosting telecom infrastructure," added the statement.

RJIO emerged as the highest bidder in a transparent process conducted under the supervision of a high-powered Bid Evaluation Committee, comprising experts from banking, telecom and law.

The company will utilise the proceeds of the monetisation of this cash deal, which is subject to lenders' and other applicable approvals, solely for pre-payment of debt to its lenders. (ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI