RCOM on the brink of Bankruptcy

Описание: RCOM on the brink of Bankruptcy.The dedicated bankruptcy court has admitted three insolvency petitions filed against Reliance Communications (RcomNSE -5.18 %) and its subsidiaries, by telecom gear maker Ericsson, dealing a severe blow to the telco’s plans of selling most of its wireless units to Reliance Jio Infocom (Jio).

The decision, which came after nearly eight months since the Swedish telecom equipment maker moved the National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT) Mumbai bench to recover Rs 1150 crore in dues, effectively makes the Anil Ambani owned carrier bankrupt, the second such after Chennai-based Aircel.

RCom was aiming to sell its towers, fibre, spectrum and nodes to Jio for about Rs 18,000 crore. According to sources in the courtroom, this case will finally head Supreme Court since neither side will back down.
Reliance Infratel, the tower subsidiary of Rcom, is also battling HSBC Daisy Investments and other minority shareholders opposing the sale of the tower assets.

For the Anil Ambani owned telco, this would be second time in last two years that its attempt to bring down debt is thwarted, due to legal hurdles. Last year, courtroom battles were one of the main reasons why its merger deal with Aircel did not go through. Because of the broken deal, asset management company Brookfield, did not pick up RCom’s towers as well.
During its many arguments, both representatives of RCom and 28 banks led by SBI had put forth to the bench that if the petition is admitted, it would stop the sale leading to a big loss for the financial lenders and also hurt public interest.

However, Ericsson had argued that it was unfair that operational creditors like them are taken advantage of and told that if the sale goes through then it is lenders who get the money while creditors are left at large. Ericsson had argued that it has had 9,000 employees working on RCom and its subsidiaries and despite many promises and re-negotiations on payment schedules, dues were not cleared.

There is also an arbitration case on between these two firms on similar lines.