NCLT approves Jio to acquire Reliance Infratel

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has given its approval to Jio for the acquisition of Reliance Infratel (RITL). The tribunal asked Jio to deposit Rs 3,720 crore in the State Bank of India (SBI) escrow account to complete the acquisition of RCOM’s tower and fibre assets.

Jio placed a bid of Rs 3,720 crore in 2019 to acquire tower and fibre asset of debt-ridden subsidiary of Anil Ambani-managed firm Reliance Communications. In December 2020, the NCLT approved Reliance Infratel’s resolution plan, but the implementation faced hiatus due to various reasons, including classification of certain RCom accounts as “fraud” following forensic audits.

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.

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. The funds will be distributed amongst the lenders once the inter-creditor dispute over the distribution of resolution funds is settled.