Rcom creditors approve `23,000 cr asset sale plan

NEW DELHI: Reliance Communications' Committee of Creditors is believed to have approved insolvency resolution plan that will fetch lenders Rs 23,000 crore by selling its assets to Reliance Jio and UVARCL.

Under the plan, 38 lenders of Rcom can recover over 70 per cent of their outstanding of Rs 33,000 crore secured debt, an industry source aware of the development told PTI.

"The committee of creditors (COC) has approved the resolution plans of RCOM and its subsidiaries RTL and RITL with an absolute majority of 100 per cent by the lenders at the COC meeting, as against the mandatory requirement of 66 per cent," the source said.

Lenders submitted claims of around Rs 49,000 crore in August of which Rs 33,000 crore estimated to be secured debt.

Reliance Jio and UV Asset Reconstruction Company Limited were the highest bidders for RCOM assets at the COC meeting held on January 13, 2019.

Jio had placed bid of around Rs 4,700 crore for the tower and fiber assets of Reliance Infratel Ltd (RITL), while UVARCL has made an offer of Rs 14,000 crore for spectrum, real estate assets, enterprise and datacenter businesses, held by Rcom and Reliance Telecom Ltd.

In addition, the creditors will clawback the priority payments of Rs 4,300 crore made to Chinese (Rs 1,300 crore) and

Indian lenders (Rs 3,000 crore).

"Loans of Chinese lenders will reduce by nearly 65 per cent to around Rs 4,000 crore from around Rs 12,000 crore. This is the highest-ever recovery of dues by financial creditors in the telecom sector, which has seen the exit or shut down of 11 out of 12 telcos since 2012," the source claimed.