SC stalls RCom’s asset sale to RJio

The Supreme Court on Monday stayed National Company Law Appellate Tribunal's order permitting sale of tower assets of Reliance Infratel, a subsidiary of Reliance Communications to Reliance Jio Infocomm till the appellate tribunal decides the case.

On April 6, the National Company

Law Appellate Tribunal had allowed State Bank of India, one of Reliance Communications' lenders, to go ahead with the sale, but asked it to keep the proceeds in an escrow account. The appellate tribunal will next hear the case on Wednesday.

HSBC Daisy Investment (Mauritius), which is a minority investor in Reliance Infratel, had challenged the appellate tribunal's order in the Supreme Court.

The court on Monday also issued notice to Reliance Infratel. “RCom can now proceed with completion of its entire asset monetization plan, covering spectrum, towers, fibre, MCNs (media convergence nodes) and real estate,” an RCom spokesperson said in a statement. Earlier, HSBC Daisy had managed a stay on the sale of Reliance Infratel's asset in the National Company Law Tribunal. The stay was challenged by Reliance Communications in appellate tribunal. Reliance Communications owes about Rs 45,000 cr0re to a consortium of banks led by State Bank of India. The bank said it planned to recover about Rs 8,000 crore from sale of tower assets of Reliance Infratel. The company's lawyer said that as a minority stakeholder, HSBC Daisy's share in the Rs 8,000 crore sale proceeds should be around Rs 300 crore to Rs 400 crore.

HSBC Daisy Investment (Mauritius) had challenged the appellate tribunal's order in the apex court