RCom lead lender SBI slammed for giving false hope over sale to Jio

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) Monday pulled up SBI, the lead lender of debt-ridden Reliance Communications, along with others for giving a ‘false impression’ to monetise Rs 37,000 crore from asset sales of the telecom company to Reliance Jio. A two-member bench headed by Chairman Justice S J Mukhopadhaya came down heavily on the lenders, specially State Bank of India, and asked why a “proceedings against them should not be initiated” for this.

“You have failed. JLF (Joint Lenders’ Forum) has failed. No sale took place,” the bench observed. According to the bench, the lenders gave a “golden outlook” to NCLAT to recover around Rs 37,000 crore from sale of assets but nothing happened. “You clapped with RCom and claimed that you would recover around Rs 37,000 crore from sale of assets to Reliance Jio…you had earlier cited losses of crore per day,” said NCLAT.