Jio deposits 3,720 cr in SBI deposit account to buy Reliance Infratel | Daily News Byte

Reliance Projects and Property Management Services, a subsidiary of telecom company Jio, has deposited Rs 3,720 crore in an SBI escrow account to purchase mobile towers and optical assets from Reliance Infratel.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) gave Jio approval to acquire Reliance Infratel (RITL) in November.

“The Reliance Infratel transaction is complete. Jio has deposited Rs 3,720 crore in SBI deposit account as per NCLT order,” a source told PTI.

Jio-led billionaire Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani made a Rs 3,720-crore offer in November 2019 to buy the tower and fiber assets of his younger brother Anil Ambani’s debt-laden subsidiary, which is run by Reliance Communications. The tribunal asked Jio to deposit Rs 3,720 crore in an escrow account with State Bank of India (SBI) to complete the purchase of RCOM’s tower and fiber assets.

On November 6, Jio proposed to deposit Rs 3,720 crore in an escrow account to complete its acquisition of insolvency-ridden Reliance Infratel. The committee of creditors has already approved Jio’s resolution plan on March 4, 2020 with 100 percent votes. RITL has optical assets of about 1.78 million route kilometers and 43,540 mobile towers across the country.

The funds will be distributed among the lenders when the intercreditor dispute over the distribution of the settlement funds is resolved.

SBI and several other banks, including Doha Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and Emirates Bank, are in a legal battle over the allocation of funds. The matter is pending before the Supreme Court. Doha Bank contested the resolution professional’s classification of claims against RITL’s indirect creditors as financial creditors. PTI PRS ANZ MR MR