Airtel Says It’s Eyeing RCom’s Spectrum and Some Equipment: Report

Bharti Airtel, India’s top telecom service provider by subscribers has reportedly confirmed that it is now eyeing struggling telco Reliance Communications’ select spectrum and some equipment. Airtel, if succeeds, would be able to bolster its spectrum holdings in the country. However, Reliance Jio, the 4G entrant, is also eyeing RCom’s spectrum in the 850 MHz band, which is considered highly efficient for 4G services, along with the latter’s tower unit and Indian fiber assets.

  • Make Telecom Talk My Trusted Source
  • Source of Google
  • Source of Google

jio-india-tower

“We have expressed our interest only in buying select spectrum and some equipment,” a spokesperson for Bharti Airtel informed the Economic Times.

Besides Jio, a number of companies, including Indus Towers, ATC, Bharti Infratel, Brookfield Infrastructure, Sistema JSFC, Tillman Global Holdings, TPG Capital, Carlyle Group, I-Squared Capital and Gateway Partners have shown interest to buy RCom’s tower unit, various media outlets reported.

RCom’s lenders comprising several local and international banks have appointed SBI Cap to seek interests for the telco’s assets. The ET report said that lenders have already issued a request for proposals (RFPs) for assets including spectrum, network equipment and fibre assets. These lenders are in a process to sell RCom’s assets to recover some portions of the roughly Rs 45,000 crore that it owes them.

“Expression of interest (EoIs) have come from practically everyone. Now, they have three weeks to submit non-binding offers — by December 12-13 — and then based on the numbers (bid value), the due diligence will take place,” a source was quoted as saying.