From Bad to Worse
Reliance Communications is lurching from one crisis to another with no definite end to its pain.
Anil Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Communications (RCom), is in a tough spot with the merger of RCom with Aircel not happening. With Tata Teleservices being acquired by Bharti Airtel, RCom has emerged as the single weakest player in the Indian telecom space despite having 80 million subscribers.
RCom's revival hopes were predicated on its three way merger deal with Aircel and MTS. That would have given the entity muscle power in spectrum holding, market share, subscriber base, and network coverage. Most importantly, RCom could have shifted a large part of its debt Rs20,000 crore (including Rs14,000 crore of bank debt and Rs6,000 crore due to the government) out of its total net debt of Rs44,345 crore
