RCom shares surge over 6% on Sistema deal

Mumbai: Shares of Reliance Communications (RCom) surged over 6 percent Monday after the company announced the acquisition of Russian conglomerate Sistema's Indian telecom unit in an all-stock deal that will create an operator with 118 million subscribers.

The stock climbed 6.18 percent to settle at Rs 79.90 on BSE. During the day, it soared 7.84 percent to Rs 81.15.

At NSE, shares of the company rose 6.3 percent to end at Rs 80.05.

The company added Rs 1,157.95 crore to Rs 19,886.95 crore in market valuation.

In terms of volume, 32.75 lakh shares of the company changed hands at BSE and over one crore shares were traded at NSE during the day.

Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd (SSTL) will hold about 10 percent stake in RCom and pay off its existing debt before closing the deal.

Russian tycoon Vladimir Evtushenkov-controlled AFK Sistema currently holds 56.68 percent stake in SSTL while Russian government owns 17.14 percent interest. Shyam Group has 23.98 percent stake and the rest is owned by small investors.

SSTL offers mobile telephony services under MTS brand across nine telecom circles in the country.

"RCom will acquire approximately 9 million customers and approximately Rs 1,500 crore of annual revenues by virtue of the transaction," the company said in a statement.

The deal will give RCom access to spectrum or airwaves in the 850 Mhz band which can be used for 4G services that it plans to start by the year-end.