Reliance Communications puts four senior executives on its board

Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications (RCom) named four of its senior executives to its board on Monday, a day after it said it had called off its merger with Aircel.

Punit Garg, president-telecom business, has been elevated to the board as executive director, the telco said in a statement. Manikantan V, chief financial officer (CFO), has also been elevated to the board as director and CFO of the company.

Suresh Rangachar, who heads the fibre and tower business, will now be an executive director at Reliance Infratel (RITL), the tower unit of RCom, while Gurdeep Singh, co-CEO of RCom, has been elevated as executive director of Reliance Telecom Ltd, another unit of RCom.

RCom has already announced a deal to sell its stake in Reliance Infratel to Canada’s Brookfield. The telco on Sunday called off the merger with Aircel, citing regulatory uncertainties and alluding to sabotage by “vested interests”, dealing a blow to the hopes of the two debt-ridden telcos to jointly take on stronger rivals Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio Infocomm

With the Reliance Communications-Aircel merger being called off, where does the Anil Ambani-owned telco stand? ET looks at the options in front of it, the clauses under strategic debt restructuring and what is at stake for the operator that says vested interests and regulatory hurdles ran aground its crucial deal.