Jio, UVARC emerge top bidders for RCom assets with bids worth Rs 21,000 cr

Delhi-based UVARC has offered to pay about Rs 16,000 crore for the spectrum, real estate, and enterprise and data centre businesses of RCom and Reliance Telecom, which houses these assets

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm and Delhi-based UV Asset Reconstruction Company (UVARC) are learnt to have emerged the highest bidders for the assets of Reliance Communications (RCom) and its subsidiaries, according to banking sources.

The combined bid amount is Rs 21,000 crore. The Anil Ambani-run company went through the insolvency process, and was referred to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in May last year after an offer from Reliance Jio to buy its assets did not find favour with the creditors. The conditions imposed by the department of telecommunications too were a hindrance.

The resolution professional (RP) was appointed in June. Sources say in a meeting of the committee of creditors (CoC), which ended late in the evening on Monday, Reliance Jio, part of Reliance Industries, agreed to marginally up its earlier offer and is willing to pay about Rs 4,700 crore for the tower and fibre assets of Reliance Infratel.

Delhi-based UVARC has offered to pay about Rs 16,000 crore for the spectrum, real estate, and enterprise and data centre businesses of RCom and Reliance Telecom, which houses these assets. The bidders are believed to have committed themselves to paying 30 per cent of the proceeds within 90 days. Email queries sent to Reliance Jio and UVARC did not elicit any response. An email to RP Anish Nanavaty also went unanswered.

Saudi Aramco remains world’s most profitable company even as oil falls

Aramco plans to buy a stake in the refining and chemicals business of Reliance Industries Ltd as it seeks buyers for its crude and diversification downstream.

International News: Saudi Aramco showed Monday it’s still the world’s most profitable company — and paid out almost all its net income in dividends — despite the dwindling price of oil.

Profit slid 12% to $46.9 billion in the first six months of 2019, the state-owned energy giant said in its first-ever half-year earnings report. That easily outstripped corporate titans such as Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and other big oil producers, many of which suffered larger declines in profit as output and crude prices fell.

“We have some of the largest and most productive reservoirs on Earth,” Khalid Al-Dabbagh, senior vice president for finance, strategy and development, said in an interview. The company’s “unrivaled financial results” amid lower oil prices are “a testament to our resilience.”

Saudi Aramco paid out $46.4 billion in dividends in the first half. That included a $20 billion special payout to its owner — the Saudi government — which compares with a $6 billion payout last year. That’s of particular interest to potential investors ahead of an initial public offering planned for 2020 or 2021, though it may not be maintained, according to money manager T Rowe Price Group Inc….