Maxis Communications, a telecom operator in Malaysia, is providing Rs 95 crore to its India subsidiary Aircel for settling outstanding salary to its employees and meeting operational expenses (Opex).
Aircel earlier announced its plans to file for bankruptcy to come out of the present financial troubles. Aircel, which could not compete with established telecom operators such as Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone and Reliance Jio, decided to scale down telecom operations.
Earlier, Aircel made an attempt to merge the telecom business with Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Communications. But Aircel abandoned the decision due to regulatory issues and increasing competition.
Maxis is providing the funds as a “goodwill” gesture from, wire agency PTI reported.
Global Communication Services Holdings (GCSH), the Mauritius-based subsidiary, will be providing the funds to support the business of Aircel. Aircel is expected to start offering pending salary to its 4,000 employees in India.
Aircel has not paid outstanding salaries for the months of February and March to its 4,000 employees in India.
Maxis has infused $7 billion into Aircel over the past several years and earlier decided not to invest more funds in the absence of returns from the India business.
Recently, state-owned BSNL approached the Communications Ministry for the recovery of its dues from Aircel. The telecom PSU, in a letter to the Department of Telecom (DoT), has also said it is exploring options including legal remedies for recovery of its outstanding dues of about Rs 42 crore.
