Bahrain's Batelco Eye Reliance Globalcom Stake
Bangalore: Bahrain Telecommunication Company (Batelco) is reportedly discussing a deal to buy controlling stake in Reliance Globalcom, the enterprise business unit of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications.
Batelco, along with a few Middle East funds has valued the Reliance Globalcom at $1.3 billion, as said by people who know, also adding that the deal is not certain. However if it is certain, then Reliance would be retaining a minority stake within the company. But spokesperson of both the companies have denied to offer comments as reported by TOI.
This seems to be an interesting development since Batelco quit the Indian telecom industry during the Supreme Court’s look on the controversial 2G spectrum allocation , taking down 122 permits issued by A Raja – the former telecom minister. It held 12 percent stake with Dubai based company in C Sivasankaran’s S Tel which lost the licenses following the verdict.
According to media reports, Batelco CEO Shiekh Mohamed bin Isa Al Khalifa would consider acquiring stake in India, but a time frame was not given for it.
Reliance Communications in the past has looked at options to raise fresh equity and divest assets to recover from its 
30,000 crore debt. It has also discussed on selling the tower unit to investors like Blackstone group and Carlyle, but failed to secure India’s largest private equity transaction.
Reliance Globalcom offers network services to global enterprises like British airways, Siemens and Virgin Megastores. The telecomm company’s value added services were bolstered by three acquisitions - Yipes Holdings, Flag Telecom and Vanco.
