New Delhi, May 2 (IANS): The shareholders of Reliance Infratel (RITL), a subsidiary of Reliance Communications (RCOM) at their meeting on April 29, 2017 have approved with 98 per cent majority the merger of the tower division of the RITL into Towercom Infrastructure Private Limited (TIPL), a company statement said here on Tuesday.

"Upon the completion of the demerger, through a Scheme of Arrangement, and the completion of certain other conditions and approvals, Rapid Holdings 2 Pte. Ltd., a company which is a part of the Brookfield Infrastructure Group will acquire 100 per cent of TIPL and thereby creating the second largest independent and operator-neutral Towers company in India," the company statement said.

The company has already received approval from Competition Commission of India for the proposed scheme of arrangement.

"The company's telecom towers demerged into TIPL will be 100 per cent owned and independently managed by Brookfield Infrastructure," the statement added.

"Upon the Scheme becoming effective, RCOM will receive an upfront cash payment of Rs 11,000 crore ($1.7 billion), which will be solely used to reduce its debt. The already announced combination of RCOM's wireless business with Aircel, and the monetisation of the tower business, will together reduce RCOM's overall debt by Rs 31,000 crore ($ 4.8 billion), or nearly 70 per cent of existing debt," the statement added.

The statement further said: "RCOM and Reliance Jio will continue as major long term tenants of the TIPL along with other existing third party telecom operators."

A petition is filed with the National Company Law Tribunal, Mumbai Bench, for approval of the scheme, it added.