RCom resolution plan: Committee of creditors to meet again on March 2

With many of the bank representatives in the committee of creditors (CoC) informing that their respective boards had not met to consider the Reliance Communications (RCom) sale, the meeting was shifted to March 2. The decision was taken in a COC meeting on Monday. The representatives included State Bank of India, which, too, has not cleared the resolution plan, sources said. The resolution professional together with a law firm is working with banks to clarify pending points. The voting results on the various resolutions to sell RCom, Reliance Telecom and Reliance Infratel is expected to be declared on March 4.

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RCom creditors meet on Monday, may vote on Jio bid for Rs 4,700 cr assets

Reliance Communications (RCom) on Sunday said a meeting of the company's committee of creditors is scheduled to be held on Monday.

"The 18th meeting of committee of creditors (CoC) of Reliance Communications Ltd is scheduled to be convened on Monday, February 24, 2020," RCom said in a regulatory filing.

No other details were disclosed.

According to sources, the CoC on Monday will put to a vote asset bids received from UV Asset Reconstruction Company and Reliance Jio from which lenders are expected to recover around Rs 23,000 crore.

UV Asset Reconstruction Company is learnt to have placed a bid of around Rs 14,700 crore, while Reliance Jio has made an offer of Rs 4,700 crore for tower and fibre assets of Reliance Infratel Ltd. There will also be a clawback of Rs 4,300 crore of priority payments made to Chinese and Indian creditors.

Jio placed bid for tower and fibre assets of Reliance Infratel Ltd (RITL) and UVARC for assets of RCom and Reliance Telecom Ltd.

RCom's secured debt is estimated to be around Rs 33,000 crore. Lenders submitted claims of around Rs 49,000 crore in August.

Reliance Communications has put all of its assets on sale that include spectrum holding of 122 megahertz (MHz), tower business, optical fibre network and data centres.

According to an order by the National Company Law Tribunal, the CoC had to complete the entire process by January 10 but it sought extension in deadline. The resolution professional, Deloitte, is expected to file resolution plan with the NCLT Mumbai on March 5.

RCom in the past had tried to sell assets to various companies, including Reliance Jio, to clear debt but the deals did not crystallise. Reliance Jio cancelled agreement to buy RCom assets, including spectrum, as it did not want to bear the past liabilities of the debt-ridden firm.

Later, the insolvency proceedings against RCom started on a plea filed by Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson after the company failed to clear its dues.

RCom's pre-tax loss widens to Rs 9,091 crore; income slips to Rs 263 crore

Reliance Communications (RCom), which is undergoing insolvency proceedings, on Friday reported pre-tax loss of Rs 9,091 crore in the December quarter, as against a loss of Rs 109 crore in the year-ago period.

It also widened its consolidated loss to Rs 10,598 crore for the third quarter, against a loss of Rs 238 crore in the same period a year ago.

According to a note by its auditors, RCom’s loss for the quarter would have been higher by Rs 1,271 crore had it provided for interest and foreign exchange variation.

The total income of Reliance Communication slipped to Rs 263 crore during the quarter, from Rs 1,083 crore in the same quarter of 2018-19.

RCom resolution professional seeks status quo on spectrum licences

The resolution professional (RP) of Reliance Communications (RCom) on Thursday moved the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) against the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) seeking the status quo on spectrum licences.

The RP sought protection from the DoT cancelling its spectrum licences. The tribunal has asked the DoT to file its reply to the petition by September 24, after which the RP can file a rejoinder to DoT’s reply by September 27. The matter will be heard next on September 30.

The spectrum licences are some of the key assets of the Anil Ambani group’s defunct telecom company, which is going through the insolvency process. The DoT had issued a show cause notice to RCom in March 2019 for non-payment of dues on these licences.

The RP, in apprehension that the DoT may terminate RCom’s licences, moved the tribunal seeking directions to restrain the DoT from taking any such step. The tribunal, however, did not give any interim relief to the firm. The counsel representing the DoT, however, said after the show cause notice, no fresh notices had been issued to company regarding spectrum licences.

RCom’s insolvency process resumed in May 2019 and so far claims to the tune of Rs 57,382 crore have been raised by financial creditors, of which a little over Rs 49,000 core has been admitted by the RP. Meanwhile, the RP had moved the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Wednesday, seeking refund of nearly Rs 580 crore from Ericsson India, which the appellate tribunal did not entertain. Instead, the RP was asked to approach the Mumbai Bench of the NCLT.

The RP had approached NCLAT with a plea stating that since RCom was now under the corporate insolvency resolution process, the money that it had given to Ericsson as a part of the settlement deal should now be returned to the company as Ericsson was only an operational creditor.

RCom had paid a sum of Rs 577 crore to the Swedish telecom equipment maker after a Supreme Court (SC) judgment. In February this year, the SC had held Ambani and two top executives guilty of contempt of court for wilfully failing to pay the dues to Ericsson.