MUMBAI: Hours after rating agencies downgraded Reliance Communication’s (RCom) bonds, the telco rejected the agencies’ claims saying it was regularly servicing the debt.
According to RCom, it issued 6.5 per cent coupon bearing bonds for an aggregate $300 million in May 2015 that will mature in November, 2020. “These bonds constitute about 4 per cent of the total debt of the company.
The bonds have always been serviced regularly on the due dates and are fully current in servicing, as on date...The ratings by Moody’s and Fitch apply only to these dollar bonds. We respectfully disagree with the recent rating actions by both these agencies, and believe that these rating actions do not reflect the servicing track record of the company,” RCom said in a statement.
Trouble started with Fitch, Moody’s, Icra and Care Ratings downgraded RCom’s debt considering its fragile liquidity position and limited ability to pay back debt. The Anil Ambani-led company also managed to win time from a 22-lender consortium to repay Rs 25,000 crore worth debt by December.
“The rating agencies have not given due credit to the advanced stage of the corporate transactions (Aircel merger and Tower sale) which are expected to deleverage the company’s balance sheet by about $4 billion i.e. by about 60 per cent within the next few months,” RCom said.