The National Company Law Tribunal here today admitted an insolvency petition filed by Swedish communications eqipment major Ericsson against Anil Ambani-run Reliance Communications and two of its subsidiaries seeking to recover Rs 1,150 crore.

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Ericsson had signed a seven-year deal in 2014 to operate and manage RCom's nationwide telecom network but has not been paid the bill.

Last September, the Swedish company had filed a petition in the NCLT's Mumbai bench seeking liquidation of the telecom operator to recover Rs 1,150 crore that RCom owes it.

The tribunal admitted the petition today which could potentially result in delaying RCom's plans to sell assets to lighten its debt load.

In a statement, the company said, "RCom and two of its subsidiaries--Reliance Telecom and Reliance Infratel-await detailed order from NCLT, allowing the Ericsson application for admitting the companies to debt resolution under the IBC." RCom owes around Rs 45,000 crore to as many as 31 domestic and international banks, including over Rs 10,000 crore to a Chinese lender. Due to mounting losses, the company began to wind down its mobile operations from last November.

It was also not servicing the debt for many qaurters before that as it was looking to recast the loans but did not materialise and since then many of its creditors had taken RCom to bankruptcy court.

This has prevented the company from closing sale of its telecom tower business to Anil Ambani's elder brother-run Reliance Industries for over Rs 23,000 crore, apart from monetising other assets including selling its sprawling DAKC premises to the Chinese lender and pare debt.

 

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)