RCom boss opts to pay Ericsson bill rather than go to prison

Indian telco Reliance Communications owed kit vendor Ericsson millions of dollars but didn’t feel like paying up. The threat of jail time seems to have changed its mind.

At the start of the year Ericsson requested RCom Chairman Anil Ambani be locked up unless his company settles its debts but a couple of months later it still hadn’t coughed up. The Indian court gave him until 19 March to find the cash and now, with one day to spare, it’s being widely reported that Ambani managed to scrape together enough shrapnel to remain a free man.

The precise amount handed over was 462 crore rupees, which we’re going to take Reuters’ word for that being equivalent to around $67 million because we can’t get our head around India’s number system. That still seems to leave $10 million or so outstanding, but is presumably enough to placate the Indian courts for now.

Had he not paid Ericsson Ambani would have been held in contempt of court because it had been judged that he had the cash handy, but just felt like holding onto it. We’ve all felt that from time to time and, if we’re honest, sometimes it’s only the law that keeps us honest. RCom’s shares were down 9% at time of writing and are trading at around the quarter of their price a year ago.

UPDATE – 17:00, 18 Mar 2019: It turns out Anil Ambani needed a bailout from his brother and Rival Mukesh to keep him out of the slammer, so maybe he didn’t have the cash handy after all.