Mukesh Ambani, Nita's help saves day for Anil as RCom pays Rs 550 crore

New Delhi Embattled billionaire Anil Ambani on Monday warded off a possible jail term as RCom cleared dues of a Swedish service provider at the eleventh hour with money received from elder brother Mukesh Ambani and his wife Nita Ambani whom he thanked for standing by him in trying times and extending timely supportAnils heavily debtladen Reliance Communications made a Rs 550 crore payment including interest to Ericsson just a day before the expiry of the deadline set by the Supreme Court to clear dues or face a threemonth jail term Soon after making the payment RCom announced termination of a Rs 17000 crore deal to sell telecom assets like spectrum fibre and tower to Mukeshs Reliance Jio citing delays in approvals from the government and lenders Anil whose businesses in telecom and power sectors went into heavy debt in the face of regulatory headwinds and intense competition thanked Mukesh and his wife Nita for bailing him outMy sincere and heartfelt thanks to my respected elder brother Mukesh and Nita for standing by me during these trying times and demonstrating the importance of staying true to our strong family values by extending this timely support a late night statement issued by Anils firm quoted him as saying Anil said he and his family are grateful and deeply touched with this gesture that they have moved beyond the past In the statement RCom said Rs 550 crore dues to Ericsson including interest dues has been made in compliance with the Supreme Court judgement However the company did not give details about the source of funds but cited timely support from Mukesh in the trying times The two brothers had fought a bitter public battle after his father Dhirubhai died without leaving a will They split his businesses between themselves with Anil getting telecom and power while Mukesh retained oil and petrochemical businessesThe split did not end the feud and the two bickered over commitment of Mukesh Reliance Industries for supply of gas to Anils power plants In 2008 Anils RCom wanted to merge with South Africas MTN but the move was thwarted by Mukesh citing his holding right of first refusal Since then the two brothers scrapped a nocompete agreement and Mukesh reentered telecom business in 2016 offering free voice call for life and data at dirt cheap prices As debt grew RCom in December 2017 entered into a deal with Jio to sell spectrum and other assets such as fibre network and telecom towers for an estimated Rs 17000 crore But the deal could not progress amid regulatory hurdles faced as the Department of Telecommunications wanted a written assurance on who would pay for RComs dues such as spectrum feeJio refused to make a commitment to pay for such fee and lenders to RCom also played hardball resulting in the deal falling through In separate statements RCom and Jio announced scrapping of the deal citing delays in getting approvals from the government and lenders The said transactions have become incapable of being consummated in accordance with the terms thereof on account of various factors and developments since the execution of the said agreements nearly 15 months ago RCom said Jio said the master agreement for acquisition of certain specific assets of RCom and the spectrum trading agreement for change in allotment of certain specific spectrum stand terminated This it said also follows the Board of Directors of RCom passing a resolution to seek fast track resolution through bankruptcy court and the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal NCLAT on February 4 restricting the sale transfer or alienation of any movable or immovable property of RComAlso ReadMukesh Ambani breaks into worlds top 10 richest peoples list with net worth of USD 54 billionThe termination of the master agreement shall not in any manner affect the rights and obligations of the parties accrued prior to the date of termination it said An Ericsson spokesperson confirmed that it has received balance payment of Rs 45877 crore principal amount from RCom on Monday Together with Rs 118 crore it had previously paid RCom has cleared all dues including interest Last month the Supreme Court held Ambani in contempt for not paying Ericssons dues despite promising to do so The court had warned to send Anil as well as Chhaya Virani and Satish Seth chairmen of two RCom units to jail if they fail to pay the dues in four weeksThe deadline expires Tuesday The company suffered a blow when National Company Law Appellate Tribunal NCLAT last week refused to free up Rs 260 crore tax refunds withheld by the lenders Banks had opposed release of the tax refunds In 2017 Ericsson moved a bankruptcy court alleging it had not been paid dues around Rs 1600 crore after signing a deal in 2013 to operate maintain and manage the telcos nationwide network It extracted a personal guarantee from Ambani to pay the dues RCom scrip closed at Rs 4 a share on the BSE Monday 930 per cent lower than the previous closeAlso ReadFacts being deliberately twisted says Anil Ambanis company on Rahul Gandhis allegationsCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates