Reliance Capital to “fully co-operate” with RBI; stock at 5% lower circuit

The Company has no outstanding loans from banks and approximately 95 per cent of its debt is in the form of debentures, it said

Shares of Reliance Capital were locked at the 5 per cent lower circuit, at Rs 18.10 apiece, on the BSE on Tuesday after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday superseded the board of industrialist Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Capital, a non-banking financial company (NBFC), owing to defaults and governance issues.

“In view of the defaults by RCL (Reliance Capital Ltd) in meeting the various payment obligations to its creditors and serious governance concerns which the board has not been able to address effectively”, the central bank superseded the board. The RBI has appointed Nageswar Rao Y, former executive director of Bank of Maharashtra, administrator of Reliance Capital. its part, the company has informed the exchanges that it will “co-operate fully” with the Administrator appointed by the RBI…Read More

Reliance likely to make bid for RCom and its related companies today

Bharti Airtel also likely to reconsider its decision and bid

Having asked for a 10-day extension from a Resolution Professional, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance group is expected to make a bid for his brother Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications (RCom) and its related companies on Monday.

The companies are up for grabs as going concerns from the Anil Ambani stable under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) process. They include RCom, Reliance Telecom (which has the spectrum), and Reliance Telecom Infrastructure which houses the tower and fibre assets. Rcom also has subsidiaries which control its real estate and data centre businesses. The bids close on Monday and it is expected that the committee of creditors will open them on the same day for discussions.

The structure of how the bid will be made is not clear as, under the regulatory rules, a bid by Reliance Jio (which is not a listed entity) acquiring RCom (a listed entity) would require the former to merge the latter. Yet that is clearly not acceptable to the group which is looking at coming out with a separate IPO for Jio. An e-mail to Jio elicited no response. It is also expected that Bharti Airtel, which had complained to the Resolution Professional that the extension given to Mukesh Ambani was unfair and had withdrawn its offer, might reconsider and also bid.

The others expected to put in bids include US-based PE fund Varde Partners, I Squared Capital (for Reliance Communication’s data centres and optic fibre assets), and Delhi-based UV Asset Reconstruction Company. The latter had earlier won its sole bid for the Aircel group (which was also under the IBC) for Rs 150 crore. Bharti had already earlier announced that it would be making a conditional bid through Bharti Airtel and Bharti Infratel. A Bharti spokesperson had at that time confirmed that it had made a conditional bid primarily for the spectrum — a precious asset…

One deal at a time: How Mukesh Ambani is trying to take on Amazon in India

Asia’s richest man is sharpening his focus on e-commerce with a string of tiny acquisitions and stake purchases to face Amazon

Companies News: A $2.5 billion spending spree involving more than two dozen deals provides some insight into how Mukesh Ambani is piecing together a strategy to take on Amazon.com Inc. in India. Asia’s richest man is sharpening his focus on e-commerce with a string of tiny acquisitions and stake purchases to face the world’s largest online retailer, after shaking up India’s telecommunications industry with cheap data and free calls.

The acquisitions represent a new strategy for Ambani’s Reliance Group, whose founder — his father Dhirubhai Ambani — built a petrochemicals business and the world’s largest oil-refining complex from scratch.

It’s a clear pivot toward consumer offerings in a country that’s becoming a battleground for giants such as Amazon.com and Walmart Inc.’s Flipkart Online Services Pvt. “The deals may be tiny, but it’s more likely that they are putting together a team of talented people by acquisitions, who can then be invested in to build out larger platform products,” said Kunal Agrawal, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence…

‘Shopping Experience’

Ambani outlined his plan to shareholders in July, saying the effort will involve the group’s unlisted businesses Reliance Retail Ltd. and Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. He has already spent about $36 billion on Jio, which has rolled out a nationwide 4G network and fibre broadband infrastructure, causing some established rivals to pull back.

The platform will use augmented reality, holographs and virtual reality to create an “immersive shopping experience,” said Ambani, 61. Reliance’s consumer businesses will contribute nearly as much to the conglomerate’s overall earnings as its bread-and-butter energy businesses by the end of 2028, he said…

Mukesh Ambani bails out Anil in Ericsson payout case day before SC deadline

RCom cleared the entire dues to Ericsson India to purge the contempt of a Supreme Court order

Company News: Billionaire Mukesh Ambani stepped in to bail out younger brother Anil Ambani by helping him repay Reliance Communications’ (RCom’s) dues to Ericsson. The last-minute rescue spares the younger Ambani a three-month jail term for contempt of court.

RCom on Monday cleared the entire dues to Ericsson India to purge the contempt of a Supreme Court order. The debt-ridden company had already paid Rs 118 crore of the Rs 550-crore dues. In addition, the company had paid around Rs 3 crore in penalties to Ericsson.

“My sincere and heartfelt thanks to my respected elder brother, Mukesh, and Nita for standing by me during these trying times and demonstrating the importance of staying true to our strong family values by extending this timely support,” said Anil Ambani in a media statement. RCom had time until Tuesday to make the payment, failing which Anil Ambani, its chairman, would have had to serve a three-month jail term, according to the court’s order.

“My family and I are grateful we have moved beyond the past, and are deeply grateful and touched with this gesture,” he added. On February 20, the apex court had held Ambani and two others guilty of contempt for wilfully violating its order by not paying Rs 550-crore dues to Ericsson..