RCom Lenders on Spot as Suitors Offer Pennies -- Market Talk

0731 GMT - Competition to acquire Indian telecom Reliance seems to be heating up with many industry players including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone evincing interest in the debt-laden company. But they're only offering to pay $1.8 billion on the $7 billion of debt Reliance owes lenders. Final bids are due next month, and they may climb from the initial approaches. But that could still leave lenders getting less than half of what they're owed. Reliance Communications is also facing an insolvency petition from Ericsson, which comes up for an Indian court hearing tomorrow. Investors holding RCom's $300 million of bonds are also mulling legal action against the company after it missed an interest payment recently. (manju.dalal@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 22, 2017 02:46 ET (07:46 GMT)