New Delhi : Billionaire Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications, which plans to shut mobile telephony business by November-end, on Monday said lenders will convert part of their debt to equity to gain 51 per cent control of the company. The firm will sell telecom tower and real estate businesses to pay off Rs 27,000 crore out of Rs 45,000 crore of debt on its book, RCom said in a statement. “Debt of Rs 7,000 crore is proposed to be converted into 51 per cent of the company’s equity, as per the SDR guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India,” it said. RCom said it has made a comprehensive “debt resolution plan to its domestic and foreign lenders”.
Under the plan, lenders would not have to write off any of their loans, it said. The ‘no-loan write-off’ plan involves payment of up to Rs 17,000 crore debt out of proceeds of monetisation of spectrum, tower and fibre assets. An additional Rs 10,000 crore would be paid by selling real estate in the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City in Mumbai and other properties across eight metros. “The new RCom will have sustainable and profitable B2B – non mobile business,” it said without elaborating. The new RCom will have “sustainable and conservative level of debt of only Rs 6,000 crore”, it added. “Cost of debt will be lower due to ability to raise debt funds overseas at low cost,” it added. The statement further said that it is under a standstill period (for interest and principal repayments) till Dec 2018 and expects to complete the SDR (Strategic Debt Restructuring) process as per RBI norm.
Debt resolution plan
RCOM will pay off up to Rs 17K cr of its debt to lenders, out of the proceeds of monetisation of spectrum, towers and fiber and MCN assets. It will pay additional Rs 10,000 crore of its debt, out of the proceeds of sales and commercial development of DAKC (Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City) and other prime real estate assets across 8-metros
