India’s Supreme Court has cleared Reliance Communications to sell off assets worth INR250 billion ($3.63 billion) after it resolved a legal spat with Ericsson with a settlement of INR5.5 billion ($80.06 million).
Ericsson’s open legal challenge resulted in RCom receiving an interim order in March this year that prohibited the operator from selling off its wireless and fixed assets to Reliance Jio. Ericsson argued that RCom owed it INR11.56 billion in unpaid service charges.
The legal dispute lasted 11 months, but pressure from Indian authorities eventually brought it to its resolution. In September last year, Ericsson attempted to initiate bankruptcy proceedings against RCom in a “last resort” attempt to settle the matter.
The debt-stricken operator is selling its assets and infrastructure, including fibre, spectrum and towers, in order to pay down its debt – it has pledged to pay back Ericsson by the end of August. Across the course of the dispute, it appeared on several occasions that the two parties were nearing an agreement, but even last week Ericsson was claiming that it could abandon their previously agreed deal.
