i Develop Stocks Advisory

RCOM hits debt trail to fund MTN deal Reliance Communications’ (RCOM) advisory team is expanding as its negotiations with the MTN take a definitive shape. Barclays and HSBC are believed to have been appointed to help RCOM raise debt finance for the transaction. The induction takes the number of RCOM’s advisors to five. The broad structure of the reverse merger envisages that RCOM’s promoters, ADAG, would swap their shares in the country’s second-largest telecom company to get nearly one-third stake in MTN. On completion of the complex deal, RCOM chairman Anil Ambani would emerge as the single-largest shareholder in the South African telco and RCOM would become a subsidiary of MTN. Mr Ambani, it is learnt, is keen to scale up his holding in MTN to 35%, the maximum permissible limit in South Africa without launching an open offer. Indications are that ADAG may need to infuse money, in addition to swapping their equity in RCOM, to get nearly one-third stake in MTN. The funds required to consummate the deal, which would create a huge wireless company with 115 million subscribers in 23 countries in Asia, the Middle East and South Africa, is targeted through two routes. One, ADAG is expected to raise $2-3 billion from private equity investors. It has given the mandate to Deutsche Bank. Two, ADAG would tap the debt market in case it needs further money for which Barclays and HSBC are appointed.