With the RCom-Aircel merger off the table, things have become progressively worse for Reliance Communications saddled with nearly Rs45,000 crore debt Despite asset sales last year, Reliance Communications’s free cash has been in negative territory, thanks to its nearly Rs45,000 crore debt. Graphic: Subrata Jana/Mint Mobis Philipose Two wrongs don’t make a right. But somehow, the idea of merging two highly leveraged companies was being seen as a solution to the problem of, believe it or not, high leverage. That fig leaf has now disappeared with Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom) and Aircel Ltd calling off their merger. Having said that, with the merger off the table, things have become progressively worse for RCom. Its deal with Brookfield Infrastructure Group was supposed to get debt worth Rs11,000 crore off its books, or about a fourth of its net debt of Rs44,345 crore as of 31 March 2017. But the deal was conditional on the merger with Aircel, which means there ...