Supreme court maintains ban on RCOM asset sale

India’s Supreme Court has refused to lift a stay on the sale of Reliance Communications’ (RCOM’s) assets to Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio), imposed after Swedish vendor Ericsson challenged the deal, the Economic Times reports. RCOM’s creditors are battling to reclaim dues from the operator, with the firm’s financial backers such as the State Bank of India (SBI) claiming that, as secured investors, they have the right to be repaid first from the sale of assets. Ericsson has contented, however, that RCOM ceased making payments in December 2016 and had no intention of attempting to repay the vendor, behaviour which Ericsson claims amounts to fraud. RCOM has a debt pile of around INR450 billion (USD6.9 billion), and was due to sell its tower, fibre and spectrum assets to Jio for around INR250 billion. For its part, Ericsson is attempting to reclaim INR10 billion in unpaid dues. The apex court is scheduled to hear pleas relating to the case on 5 April.