Is it another scam in the making? SBI-led consortium will raise Rs 21,000 crore for Aircel by mortgaging its spectrum, according to a story published in a leading Economic daily.

It means that SBI-led consortium may be trying to raise Rs 21,000 crore by mortgaging a property worth much less than Rs 6,000 crore.

CBI is set to file a charge sheet against the promoters of Aircel and former communications minister Dayanidhi Maran for forcing its original promoter to sell the company to Ananda Krishnan.

It may be pointed out that the company got its 2G spectrum through administered price in most of the circles. It paid only Rs 1,650 crore for the 2G spectrum. Under new merger and acquisition guidelines, the company can not get more than this amount, even if it sells the spectrum today. The buyer will have to pay the difference in the administered price and market price to the government.

                                 

Moreover, in most of the lucrative circles, licence duration is less than 10 years, it means that the value of spectrum is much less than Rs 1,650 crore.

The company got spectrum in 2100 MHz and 2300 MHz (called 3G and 4G spectrum in India) through auction in some circles. Total value of spectrum will not be more than Rs 6,000 crore. It is not known, how SBI-led consortium of banks will manage to get a debt of Rs 21,000 cr by mortgaging a property worth much less than Rs 6,000 crore.

Scam-tainted Aircel is facing serious financial crunch as its parent company Maxis has declined to invest in it. Its problem was further increased due high level of incompetency of the people managing its India operations. Thankfully, the company has removed most of the top executives responsible for making it non-performer.

It had earlier sold its towers to GTL. The company has very limited fixed assets.

According to DoT data, it has a negative net worth of Rs 4,198.25 crore, according to DoT data released late January.