MUMBAI: Reliance Industries has completed demerger of the optic fibre cable and tower infrastructure and moved it to special purpose vehicles (SPV) and transferred the ownership of SPVs to Securities and Exchange Board of India-approved Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InVit), RIL said in its fourth-quarter earnings announcement. These transactions senior company officials told reporters would bring down the company’s net debt to Rs 1,54,000 crore from the earlier level of Rs 1,96,000 crore.
RIL will continue to deleverage and InVit is a large transaction, said V Srikanth, joint chief financial officer. However, he declined to comment if stake sale in the refining and petrochemical business as reported to Saudi Aramco in sections of the media will be part of the deleveraging plans.
“Pursuant to a Composite Scheme of Arrangement among Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL) and Jio Digital Fibre Private Limited (JDFPL) and Reliance Jio Infratel Private Limited (RJIPL), RJIL has demerged its optic fiber cable undertaking to JDFPL and transferred its tower infrastructure undertaking on a slump sale basis to RJIPL. JDFPL has Fair Valued its Assets through reputed International Valuer,” it said.
RIL, being a shareholder of RJIL, has received equity shares and optionally convertible preference shares (OCPS) — equity shares of Rs 494 crore and Rs 77,158 crore through OCPS.Now that the assets have been transferred, the SPVs will be managed independently and service its liabilities, said Anshuman Thakur, head of strategy and planning of Jio.
“Tower undertaking and Fibre undertaking have been transferred, which became effective from end of March. The assets have been transferred along with corresponding liabilities. Whatever liabilities pertaining to those assets have been transferred to those SPVs,” Thakur said.Between the two companies, Rs 1,07,000 crore of liabilities have been transferred, including bank loans and other liabilities.
Q4 results released
RIL’s consolidated net profit in the January-March quarter rose 9.8 per cent year-on-year to I10,362 crore and revenue rose 19.4 per cent on year to I1,54,110 crore. RIL’s FY19 net profit was up 13.1 per cent on year at I39,588 crore, and revenue up 44.6 per cent at I6,22,809 crore. The retail business revenue crossed I1 lakh crore. Consumer biz now accounts for almost 25% of RIL’s EBIDTA.