NCLT nod for Jio to acquire RelInfratel

Mumbai: The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Monday gave its approval to Jio for the acquisition of Reliance Infratel (RITL). The tribunal asked Jio to deposit Rs3,720 crore in the State Bank of India (SBI) escrow account to complete the acquisition of RCom's tower and fibre assets. On November 6, Jio had proposed to deposit Rs3,720 crore in an escrow account to complete the acquisition of Reliance Infratel, which is undergoing an insolvency resolution process. Billionaire Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani-led Jio placed a bid of Rs3,720 crore in November 2019 to acquire tower and fibre asset of debt-ridden subsidiary of his younger brother Anil Ambani-managed firm Reliance Communications.

The Committee of Creditors has already approved the resolution plan by Jio on March 4, 2020, with a 100 per cent vote. According to an application moved by Reliance Projects and Property Management Services, a subsidiary of Jio, due to the pendency of the proceedings over the distribution of the amount and issuance of 'no dues' certificate, implementation of the resolution plan is delayed.

"Such delay is causing severe harm to the interest of the corporate debtor (Reliance Infratel) as well as the resolution applicant (Jio)," it submitted before NCLT last month. Jio said the delay in acquisition of RITL assets due to inter-creditor disputes will deteriorate the value of assets. RITL has fibre assets of around 1.78 lakh route kilometers and 43,540 mobile towers across the country.

RITL is the holding company for tower and fibre assets of RCOM. Reliance Project & property Management Services Limited, the successful resolution applicant for Reliance Infratel Ltd (RITL), had moved a fresh application in the NCLT Mumbai to complete the acquisition process.