RCOM clears USD2bn from its foreign debt

Indian telecoms firm Reliance Communications (RCOM) has cleared two loans totalling USD1 billion during the three months ended 30 June 2013, the Economic Times reports. RCOM fully repaid two syndicated ECB loans of USD500 million each, that had been sourced from a group of international banks in 2007. A statement from telco added: ‘RCOM’s foreign currency debt is steadily declining every year and the interest outgo on such debt is fully covered by USD denominated earnings from the Reliance Globalcom business.’ As previously noted by CommsUpdate, RCOM has looked to reduce its debt burden in recent years through the sale of various assets but with little success. A planned initial public offering (IPO) of submarine cable arm Reliance Globalcom was called off in mid-2012 due to a lack of interest from investors, although reports emerged earlier this year that RCOM was involved in talks with a consortium of private equity firms regarding the potential sale of an 80% stake in Globalcom.