Reliance Jio completed the transaction to acquire RCom’s tower and fibre assets. On Thursday, Jio deposited ₹3720 crore in the SBI escrow account, as per the NCLT mandate.
This deal will see Jio’s subsidiary sweep up 1,78,000km of fibre assets across the country, while also acquiring 43,000 mobile towers from the debt-ridden RITL (Reliance Infratel), which is the infrastructure company for Reliance Communications (RCom).
Delay due to disputes
Jio was initially set to scoop up RITL’s business in 2020, before RITL managed to provide a resolution plan of its own, which was approved by the NCLT a couple of months later in December 2020. For the past two years however, Jio’s acquisition of Reliance Infratel was on hold, due to inter creditor disputes as well as from the delays from re-examining RITL’s accounts.
To expedite the acquisition process, Reliance Jio proposed to the NCLT Mumbai, “In order to avoid any further delays, the applicant (Jio) proposes to deposit the total resolution amount in an account with State Bank of India as was directed by this Tribunal in the plan approval order,” said Jio.
With the total resolution amount of ₹3,720 crore deposited with the SBI, Jio’s acquisition of Infratel is complete.
