On father Dhirubhai's birthday, Mukesh Ambani bails out brother Anil, buys wireless assets

Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) will acquire wireless assets from Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications (RCOM) and its affiliates.

The assets put up for monetisation included 122.4 MHz of 4G Spectrum in the 800/900/1800/2100 MHz bands, over 43,000 towers, around 1.78 lakh km of fibre with a pan-India footprint, and 248 media convergence nodes.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), the conglomerate owned by Mukesh Ambani, made the announcement on Thursday - the birth anniversary of the Ambani brothers' father, industry titan Dhirubhai Ambani.

A 'definitive' agreement was signed after Reliance Jio emerged as the successful bidder after a two-stage process.

"The acquisition is subject to receipt of requisite approvals from governmental and regulatory authorities, consents from all lenders, release of all encumbrances on the said assets and other conditions precedent. The consideration is payable at completion and is subject to adjustments as specified in the agreement," a statement from Jio statement read.

Reliance Communications said it "expects the transactions to close in a phased manner between January and March 2018, subject to lenders' and other applicable approvals."

The company added the "deal consideration comprises primarily of cash payment and includes transfer of deferred spectrum installments payable to the Department of Telecommunication." The proceeds of the monetisation of this cash, it said, will be used "solely for pre-payment of debt to its lenders," RCOM said.

Anil Ambani said Tuesday that the company had achieved full resolution of Reliance Communications' debt, reducing it by Rs 25,000 crore to Rs 6,000 crore by monetising assets.

(Inputs from Business Today and IANS)

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