India’s Reliance ADA Group wants to sell “significant stakes in its telecommunications assets to help reduce its heavy debt load and fund costly network upgrades,”
the
Wall Street Journal
reported.
It is exploring the possibility of selling up to 26% of Reliance Communications Ltd., India’s second-largest cell phone company, or 49% of Reliance Telecom, which controls other wireless assets, according to the report.
Reliance Communications is a unit of the Reliance ADA conglomerate controlled by Anil Ambani, the article said. It would use funds from a sale to help reduce about $6.2 billion in debt.
Mr. Ambani, who controls more than 67% of Reliance Communications, had difficulty selling equity in the telecom provider in recent years because his older brother, Mukesh Ambani, claimed a first right of refusal under a family agreement. The relevant family pact, which derailed talks between Reliance and South African wireless provider MTN Group Ltd. in 2008, has since been scrapped, freeing Reliance to aggressively offer stakes to suitors.
(Source:
Wall Street Journal,
June 4, 2010.)
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