Addressing the shareholders at Reliance Communications? (RCOM) annual general meeting, Anil Ambani, chairman, RCOM said that the company is holding talks with several consortia to sell its telecom tower unit, Reliance Infratel.
Ambani also said that the promoters plan to raise their stake in the flagship company to 75 per cent from the current 67.9 per cent.
“We are in the advanced stages of negotiations with a number of consortia which have expressed great interest in this very valuable asset, and I am sure that we will be able to move forward expeditiously. When we hopefully conclude the Reliance Infratel transaction, it will be the largest private equity transaction in the history of this country,” Ambani told the shareholders.
Currently, the company has an annual interest burden of over Rs 6.79 billion on a debt of around Rs 320 billion. The company also hopes to maintain its debt at substantially lower levels, Ambani added.
Prior to this, it was reported that private equity giants Blackstone and Carlyle Group have jointly expressed an interest to bid for Reliance Communications’ tower business.
At the meeting, the shareholders also approved the issue of RCOM?s equity shares to qualified institutional buyers and raising resources through issue of securities in international markets.
