Reliance Communications to spin off real estate

REUTERS - Reliance Communications will spin off its real estate business into a separately listed unit, a move the country's No.3 mobile phone carrier by customers said was to focus on its core business.

The unit, Reliance Properties, will work with global partners to develop real estate, which includes land in Mumbai and New Delhi, Reliance Communications said.

The value of the real estate when developed was estimated to be more than 120 billion rupees, the company said.

Shareholders of Reliance Communications will receive free shares in Reliance Properties on a pro-rata basis, the mobile carrier said. A panel constituted by its board will work out further details of the demerger.

 

Reliance Communications, controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani, is the most leveraged among listed Indian telecommunications carriers and has so far been unsuccessful in its efforts to sell stakes or list companies to cut its debt.

In December, Ambani's Reliance Group and China's Dalian Wanda Group announced a tie-up to develop real estate and movie theatre projects.

(Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan in MUMBAI and Devidutta Tripathy in NEW DELHI; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)