RCom plans to monetise real estate assets

Telecom major Reliance Communications plans to monetise its real estate assets as it looks to pare debt.

"Reliance Communications Ltd has informed...that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on July 07, 2013, inter alia, to consider proposals for unlocking value from the Real Estate Properties held by the Reliance Communications Limited and its subsidiaries," RCom said in a BSE filing.

Anil Ambani-controlled RCom in December 2012 had announced setting up a joint venture with Chinese real estate firm Wanda Group.

RCom has utilised expertise of Wanda Group in development of Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City, which is spread over area of 135 acres in Navi Mumbai, and a Business District project in Hyderabad, covering an area of 80 acres owned by subsidiary Reliance Infrastructure.

Wanda Group and Reliance MediaWorks also agreed to develop multiplexes business in India and the US.

RCom has been looking to hive off as well as open up various assets to lower its debt burden. The net debt of the company stood at Rs 38,864 crore (Rs 388.64 billion) by end of March 2013.

The company earlier this week paid off debts which cumulatively amounted to around Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion).

On April 2, RCom entered into agreement with Reliance Industries' telecom arm to "provide for optimal utilisation of the existing and future infrastructure of both companies on reciprocal basis". Both the companies announced Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) deal under which Reliance Jio got right to use RCom's nationwide 1.2 lakh kilometres inter-city fiber optic network infrastructure.

This was followed with Rs 12,000 crore pact on June 7 under which RJI got right to utilise up to 45,000 ground and rooftop based mobile towers of RCom for rolling out 4G services.

Shares of RCom rose by 1.12 per cent to end at Rs 135.60 apiece on the BSE.