RCom, RJio end spectrum deal amid legal hurdles

Non-receipt of DoT consent, no-objection certificates from lenders behind break-up

Debt-laden Reliance Communications (RCom) and Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries (RIL), have decided to mutually terminate an asset-sale agreement.

This comes even as Mukesh Ambani stepped in to save his younger brother Anil from going to jail by coughing up the money to repay Swedish equipment major Ericsson. RCom on Monday paid ₹458.77 crore to Ericsson, avoiding a potential three-month jail term for its Chairman Anil Ambani.

The asset sale agreements, signed on December 28, 2017 and August 11, 2018, were supposed to reduce RCom’s debt but regulatory and legal hurdles delayed the completion of the deal.