RCOM shareholders greenlight asset monetisation plan

Reliance Communications’ (RCOM’s) shareholders have approved an asset monetisation plan that will reduce the operator’s debt pile from INR450 billion (USD7 billion) to around INR200 billion. The loss-making cellco exited the retail mobile market in November last year, after its planned merger with Aircel fell through and in late December RCOM agreed to sell its wireless spectrum, tower sites, fibre-optic cable networks and media convergence nodes (MCNs) to newcomer Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio) for around INR240 billion. The assets pegged for sale to Jio are understood to include 122.4MHz of spectrum, 43,000 towers, 178,000km of fibre and 248 MCNs, although the transaction is still subject to regulatory approvals. Alongside the sale to Jio, RCOM’s monetisation plan also includes other assets such as elements of the company’s real estate portfolio.