NEW DELHI: After several Indian banks marked the loan accounts of Reliance Communications Ltd and two other subsidiaries as fraudulent, the bankrupt Anil Ambani-led firm released a statement Wednesday calling the classification as “entirely unjustified”.
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday had directed two of these banks—Union Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank—to maintain the status quo regarding the classification, after RCom and its subsidiary Reliance Telecom Ltd challenged the move.
On Wednesday, RCom said in a statement that according to figures certified by the Resolution Professional (RP) handling its bankruptcy proceedings, it owes financial creditors around Rs 26,000 crore. This is opposed to claims made by Indians banks, vendors and other creditors totalling around Rs 86,000 crore on the company—Rs 49,000 crore on RCom, Rs 24,000 crore on Reliance Telecom, and Rs 12,600 crore on Reliance Infratel.
“The alleged ‘fraud’ classification by certain banks is entirely unjustified and unwarranted, and the Hon’ble Delhi High Court by an interim order has directed the same to be kept in abeyance for the time being, and the matter is now sub judice,” it added.
According to the company, the Resolution Plans unanimously agreed to by the lenders are currently at various stages of approval before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and the implementation of the approved plans would mean that lenders would likely recover at least 70 per cent of their dues, RCom claimed.
In the case of Reliance Infratel, Reliance Jio unit Reliance Digital Platform is the successful Resolution Applicant and lenders will get Rs 4,400 crore from the implementation. The resolution plans for the other two firm require NCLT approval.
UVARC plans require approval from NCLT
The Resolution Plan of RCom and RTL are currently pending approval before the NCLT Mumbai. If implemented, lenders will recover around Rs 18,000 crore from the sale of these two companies to the UV Asset Reconstruction Company, the winning bidder
RCom not only victim of Jio’s entry in 2016
RCom pointed out that the financial stress due to the entry of Jio in 2016 with unlimited free offerings was not unique to RCom, but had “decimated the entire industry” and led to the shutdown of Aircel, Sistema, Videocon, Tata Docomo, etc.