Mumbai (The Hawk): Reliance (NS:RELI) Jio paid the lenders Rs 3,720 crore on Thursday to finalise the acquisition of the tower and fibre assets from Reliance Communication Ltd. (RCOM).
Sources claim that the corporation has placed Rs 3,720 crore in the State Bank of India's escrow account (NS:SBI).
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) granted Jio's request for permission to purchase Reliance Infratel (RITL), an RCOM subsidiary that houses the tower and fibre assets, in November.
Jio was permitted by the tribunal to deposit Rs 3,720 crore in the SBI escrow account.
Jio filed a petition with the NCLT in Mumbai on November 6 with the intention of depositing Rs 3,720 crore in an SBI escrow account to finalise the purchase of Reliance Infratel.
Jio made a bid of Rs 3,720 crore in November 2019 to buy the tower and fibre asset from RCOM.
The Jio resolution plan was previously unanimously accepted by the Committee of Creditors on March 4, 2020, but the acquisition procedure was unable to be completed because of disagreements amongst the lenders regarding the allocation of monies.
Implementation of the resolution plan is delayed because of the ongoing legal proceedings over the distribution of the funds and issue of the "no dues" certificate, according to an application made by Jio subsidiary Reliance Projects and Property Management Services.
According to the petition, a delay "is seriously harming the interests of the corporate debtor as well as the resolution applicant" and "will depreciate the value of assets."
43,540 mobile towers and approximately 1.78 lakh route kilometres of fibre are owned by RITL.
Once the inter-creditor disagreement over the distribution of settlement monies is resolved, the funds will be disbursed among the lenders in accordance with the NCLT order.
In a legal dispute over the allocation of cash, SBI and a few other institutions, notably Doha Bank, Standard Chartered (LON:STAN) Bank, and Emirates Bank, are involved.
The Supreme Court is now deliberating the case.
The resolution professional's characterization of the claims from RITL's indirect creditors as financial creditors had been contested by Doha Bank.
(Inputs from Agencies)