Reliance Comm arm to pay $76.9 mln to buy 100% in VANCO Group

[K.Karthik Raja]

Reliance Comm arm to pay $76.9 mln to buy 100% in VANCO Group
, Monday, May 26
.
MUMBAI - Reliance Globocom, subsidiary of Reliance Communications
Ltd.
has signed an agreement to acquire London-headquartered VANCO Group
for $76.9
mln (3.3 bln rupees) free of debt.
"The acquisition of VANCO would add $365 mln (15.5 bln rupees) to
the
annual revenue of Reliance Globalcom through secure long-term
contracts with
largest enterprise customers," the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group company
said
in a release.
VANCO is a global virtual network provider with over 220 multi-
national
companies as its customers, the release said.
With the acquisition of VANCO, Reliance Globalcom will have an
enterprise
customer base of over 1,400.
Reliance Globalcom would add nine network management centres
through the
VANCO buy.
VANCO's market capitalization at its peak was over $750 mln (30
bln rupees).
The news of acquisition did not help shares of Reliance
Communications
recover, which have been trading in the red on funding concerns after
the
company said it was in exclusive negotiations with South Africa's MTN
Group
regarding "potential combination of their businesses".
At 3:13PM, shares of Reliance Communications were trading 544.05
rupees
on the National Stock Exchange, down 5% from its close Friday. End