Jio, Airtel To Bid For RCom’s Physical Assets

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

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

The National Company Law Tribunal in May superseded RCom board and appointed a resolution to run the company and also allowed the State Bank of India-led consortium of 31 banks to form a committee of creditors.

RCom lenders have claimed dues of around Rs 49,000 crore on the company till May 2019.

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