Batelco in talks to acquire a stake in Globalcom

Bahrain Telecommunications Company (Batelco) has begun talks with Reliance Communications (RCOM) to purchase a stake in the latter’s submarine cable arm Reliance Globalcom, the Economic Times reports, citing Batelco chief executive Sheikh Mohamed bin Isa al-Khalifa. Batelco is keen to expand operations overseas to offset declining income from its domestic unit. Globalcom has reportedly been valued at USD1.3 billion by Batelco; if the deal goes ahead, RCOM would retain a minority stake in the company. As previously noted by CommsUpdate, RCOM scrapped a plan to launch an initial public offering (IPO) of Globalcom in July 2012 after the sale failed to garner enough interest from investors. RCOM had sought USD1 billion from the IPO to reduce its debt burden.