Former Billionaire Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications will fall back into bankruptcy as an appeals court allowed the beleaguered company’s request to enter the process in an attempt to sell assets.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal allowed RCom to withdraw its appeal against insolvency proceedings initiated last year and lifted interim orders that temporarily halted the bankruptcy case. The moratorium on recovery of dues from RCom will continue.
Today’s order allowing RCom to be sent back to bankruptcy court is in accordance with the company’s plans, disclosed to the stock exchanges in February, to seek to sell its telecommunications assets and airwave licenses through the insolvency process.
Anil Ambani’s older sibling and Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm had earlier offered to purchase RCom’s assets in a 173 billion rupee (Dh9.13bn) deal, which would have helped partly pay off lenders. The deal fell through after encountering regulatory hurdles.
Mukesh Ambani had in March helped his younger brother avert the risk of being jailed by making an $80 million payment on his behalf to the local unit of Ericsson for past maintenance services.
Changing visa rules
For decades the UAE has granted two and three year visas to foreign workers, tied to their current employer. Now that's changing.
Last year, the UAE cabinet also approved providing 10-year visas to foreigners with investments in the UAE of at least Dh10 million, if non-real estate assets account for at least 60 per cent of the total. Investors can bring their spouses and children into the country.
It also approved five-year residency to owners of UAE real estate worth at least 5 million dirhams.
The government also said that leading academics, medical doctors, scientists, engineers and star students would be eligible for similar long-term visas, without the need for financial investments in the country.
The first batch - 20 finalists for the Mohammed bin Rashid Medal for Scientific Distinction.- were awarded in January and more are expected to follow.
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
