RCom-Jio deal: Anil Ambani’s firm extends spectrum sale agreements with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio

In a temporary relief to Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom), pertaining to its spectrum deal with Reliance Jio Infocomm, the two companies have decided to extend the validity of the agreements to June 2019. The deal is hung in the air as the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has refused to clear the deal over non-payment of dues by RCom.

“RCOM and Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. have extended the validity of the agreements signed on 28th December 2017 for sale of Towers, Fiber, MCNs and Spectrum of RCOM and its affiliates to 28th June 2019,” RCom said in filing with the stock exchanges. It may be noted that DoT has maintained its stance not to clear the deal unless it gets clarity on payment of dues and associated charges from the two companies.

Reliance Communications owes the DoT about Rs 2,900 crore. Earlier this month, RCom had given a corporate guarantee of Rs 1,400 crore to the DoT after an order by the Supreme Court. Recently, Reliance Jio reportedly met the Telecom Secretary to discuss outstanding dues concerns raised by DoT over the payment related to the deal between the two companies. Jio is learnt to be seeking assurance from the government that it should not be held liable for RCom’ past dues pertaining to telecom spectrum.

Meanwhile, RCom said last week it remains committed to paying its outstanding dues, even as the telco’s proposed deal with Reliance Jio remains uncertain. RCom said it hopes to get long-awaited consent from DoT for its spectrum sale to Reliance Jio Infocomm.

Last year, RCom signed a deal Reliance Jio for sale of wireless spectrum, tower, fibre and media convergence nodes assets – the proceeds of which were to be used to clear Rs 45,000 crore debt. So far, the company has completed the sale of optical fibre assets worth Rs 3,000 crore and sale of its media convergence nodes worth Rs 2,000 crore.

Reliance Communications (RCOM)