Bharti Airtel withdraws bid for Rcom assets
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel has withdrawn its bid to purchase assets of Reliance Communications after terming the move of committee of creditors to extend the bid submission deadline on the request of Reliance Jio as “extremely unfair” and “biased”.
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel has withdrawn its bid to purchase assets of Reliance Communications (Rcom) after terming the move of the committee of creditors (COC) to extend the bid submission deadline on the request of Reliance Jio “extremely unfair” and “biased”.
Without naming Reliance
Jio, Bharti Airtel Director (Finance) Harjeet Kohli, in a letter to resolution professional Anish Niranjan Nanavaty, said his company’s request to extend the deadline was turned down by the COC of Rcom but surprisingly, the dates have been extended to accommodate submission by a bidder.
“Given the complexities involved in the proposed transaction, vide our letter dated
October 31, 2019, we requested for an extension of time to submit the resolution plan from November 11, 2019, till December 1, 2019... Disappointingly, our request for extension was rejected by COC,” Kohli said.
Bharti Airtel, Bharti Infratel and private equity firm Varde Partners have already submitted their bids for assets of Reliance Communications, while Reliance Jio has sought extension of the asset sale deal deadline by another 10 days. Airtel has placed a conditional bid to buy spectrum of Rcom, while Bharti Infratel has submitted bids for mobile towers.
The COC extended the deadline by 10 days and has decided to open bid now on November 25.
“To our utter shock, we have learnt that the COC has now decided to extend the submission timeline to November 25, 2019, until 1200 hours, solely based on the request of another potential bidder,” Kohli said.
He said that since Bharti Airtel's request was formally declined by the COC, the company was constrained to submit the bids under due haste without the benefit of sufficient time to complete the resolution plan within the set deadline.