Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Reliance Communications to sell some of its assets' that was published in Newsband

Reliance Communications to sell some of its assets

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: Reliance Communications BSE will hold a board meeting on Sunday to discuss the unlocking of value of its real estate assets. The company has a huge land bank at its head quarters, Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City complex, in Navi Mumbai.

The purpose is to consider a proposal for unlocking value from the real estate properties held by the Reliance Communications and its subsidiaries.

It seems that since the group does not occupy the entire office space at DAKC as well as other offices; it may consider selling some of them.

Last December, the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group had started a joint venture with China's Wanda Group, giving it the rights to develop residential and commercial property at DAKC that spans 135 acres.

Apart from the HQ, the group also has a large property in Hyderabad under a special tax-exempt IT Park.

Wanda Group was also given a contract to develop a new business district project in Hyderabad covering 80 acres, owned by its sister concern Reliance Infrastructure, for commercial and residential purposes, hotel, with plans to develop up to 10 million square feet.

Reliance Communications, which had a net debt of 39,000 crore till recently, repaid around $1 billion (6,000 crore) plus $207 million.

The company is affected by the ballooning interest costs. Reliance Communications has been trying to sell some assets, including its tower business, international undersea cables and even a stake in the parent company to reduce this liability.

Its recent deals to lease towers and optic fibre to Reliance Industries' Jio Infocomm have also come at a heavy discount, but even the amount derived from this is not sufficient.