India's third largest cellular carrier in terms of customer base, Reliance Communications Ltd had announced that it has withdrawn from discussions with Bahrain Telecommunications for the sale of a stake in its enterprise subsidiary.

Instead of pursuing talks with Batelco, it also announced the opening of discussions with a private equity group led by Samena Capital. These discussions are set to be concluded by the end of May 2013.

In a statement, Reliance Communications said, "Samena Capital, in a proposed consortium with other global PE funds, is at an advanced stage of the process of due diligence and completion of definitive documents in relation to the acquisition of Reliance Globalcom Ltd."

There was no mention of the other members in the consortium and there was no reason why Batelco discussions had broken down.

The two major telecommunications firms had announced they were in discussion as to the acquisition and sale of Reliance's enterprise business subsidiary. This unit is burdened by a heavy load of debt and manages the undersea cable business of the company.