Indian telecoms giant Reliance Communications (RCom) is reportedly in active talks with a potential buyer to sell a stake in its Globalcom unit, which includes undersea cables.
Early this year, rumours emerged that RCom was looking to sell 80% of…
Indian telecoms giant Reliance Communications (RCom) is reportedly in active talks with a potential buyer to sell a stake in its Globalcom unit, which includes undersea cables.
Early this year, rumours emerged that RCom was looking to sell 80% of Globalcom to Bahrain’s Batelco for Rs60bn (US$1.1bn), but discussions fell apart.
Shortly after, RCom said it was in exclusive talks with a consortium of private equity funds led by investment firm Samena Capital about the stake sale. The parties were hoping talks would be concluded by late May, but said they could last longer.
Gurdeep Singh, chief executive of RCom’s wireless business, also told Reuters this week that the company is still looking to divest its non-core Reliance Digital TV business to cut debt.
In April, reports suggested that the telco giant was hoping to sell the DTH business to Sun Group for approximately Rs20bn (US$366m). But talks have now reportedly been called off.
Reliance Digital TV claims to have 4.7 million subscribers, representing 8% of India’s DTH market.
Meanwhile, Globalcom says it serves more than 2,100 enterprises, 200 carriers and 2.5 million retail customers in 163 countries across six continents. The business owns an undersea cable system spanning 65,000km.
RCom is trying to pare its Rs411.7bn (US$6.5bn) debt pile and selling assets, as well as a US$1bn network sharing with competitor Reliance Industries, is part of this strategy.
Yesterday, RCom reported revenues for Q3 2013 of Rs58.4bn (US$922.4m), up from Rs54.2bn (US$586m) the previous quarter. EBITDA stood at Rs23.3bn (US$367.6m).
The company was not immediately available for further comment.
