Jio, Airtel to bid for Reliance Communications' physical assets

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have expressed interest in bidding for physical telecom infrastructure of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications which is undergoing insolvency proceedings, a source privy to the development told PTI. The two companies are , however, are not interested in buying spectrum held by RCom, the source said.

The NCLT in May superseded RCom board and appointed a resolution to run the company and also allowed the SBI-led consortium of 31 banks to form a committee of creditors.

RCom lenders have claimed dues of around Rs 49,000 crore on the company till May 2019.

“Jio and Airtel are not interested in spectrum because there is no clarity on the sale and transfer of the airwaves to them. In any case, both the companies will need to pay market rate of spectrum to complete the deal. Therefore, it is better to buy it in spectrum auction,” the source said.

Reliance Jio in December 2017, had signed a mega deal with RCom for buying wireless spectrum, tower, fibre and media convergence nodes assets.

RCom announced completion of sale of its media convergence nodes and related infrastructure assets, worth Rs 2,000 crore to Jio in August 2018. Later, Jio called off several deals that were under process.