Shares of Reliance Anil Ambani's Reliance Group companies ended in negative terrain on Wednesday after the Supreme Court held the Chairman Anil Ambani guilty of contempt of court in a petition filed by Ericsson India against him over non-payment of dues worth over Rs 550 crore.
Also Read: Ericsson-RCom case: Anil Ambani, 2 others found guilty of contempt; SC says pay up or go to jail
Reacting to the news, shares of RCom, once a flagship company of the group, declined as much as 9.46 per cent to hit an intra-day low of Rs 5.45, before closing at 5.80 levels on BSE.
In a similar fashion, stocks of Reliance Capital closed 4.26 per cent lower at Rs 145.05, Reliance Infrastructure fell 2.29 per cent to Rs 119.40 and Reliance Power settled at Rs 10.75, down 0.92 per cent.
RCom share has already been excluded from the futures and options segment of National Stock Exchange and all its existing contracts will expire on February 28, 2019. "All existing contracts in the underlying RCom i.e. contracts with expiry dates February 28, 2019, March 28, 2019 and April 25, 2019 shall expire on February 28, 2019 and shall be physically settled as per the mechanism specified by circular no.67/2018 dated June 15, 2018, NSE has notified.
Also Read: Reliance Group shares fall after Supreme Court holds Anil Ambani, two directors guilty of contempt of court in Ericsson case
If failure to sell assets for paying back its lenders is one reason for the loss of investor confidence, the other major issue is telecom industry's aggressive pricing war which eroded the revenue margins. A major tariff war started by his brother Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio that led to the consolidation of telecom companies in India.
For the December quarter, the cash-strapped company reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 341 crore, compared with a net loss of Rs 206 crore in the same period a year ago. The company's revenue for its continuing business decreased to Rs 1,083 crore from Rs 1,176 crore in the same period a year ago.