NCLT halts Reliance Infratel’s asset sales

MUMBAI:The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Wednesday directed Reliance Infratel Ltd, a subsidiary of Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom), to stay the sale of its assets until March 13.

The tribunal was hearing a petition filed by offshore investors of Reliance Infratel led by HSBC Daisy Investments (Mauritius) Ltd, which are alleging oppression of minority shareholders and mismanagement.

After hearing the arguments of Reliance Infratel, overseas investors and the joint lenders’ forum of RCom, the NCLT division bench of B S V Prakash Kumar and Ravikumar Duraisamy reserved its final order, to be released on March 12.

This might create a minor hiccup as the Anil Ambani-owned company has entered into a binding agreement to sell off parts of RCom’s assets to Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, controlled by Anil Ambani’s older brother Mukesh Ambani. An RCom spokesperson declined to comment. Earlier on December 28, both companies in separate statements said that Jio had emerged as the highest bidder for the wireless spectrum, tower, optical fibre network and mediaconvergencenodeassetsof RCom. HSBC Daisy-led investors argued that the company in which they had invested — Reliance Infratel — would become defunct because it would not have any assets left.

“When we had invested ₹1,100 crore in the company, under the agreement, we had the right to know about any changes that (the) company does, but we were not aware of anything that the company did,” argued their counsel Iqbal Chagla.

He further argued that out of the total debt of RCom of around ₹45,000 crore, Reliance Infratel had debt of mere ₹3,400 crore, while the valuation of the latter’s tower business alone was ₹11,000 crore when its parent was in talks with Brookfield to sell assets.

MINORITY INVESTORS ALLEGE OPPRESSION IN JIO DEAL; FINAL ORDER ON MARCH 12