Indian telecom arm of Russian Conglomerate Sistema SSTL today sold off around 2 per cent of its equity holding in debt-ridden Reliance Communications in open market, thereby lowering its stake to 4.9 per cent.

"...we hereby inform you sale of 5,83,10,661 equity shares of Rs 5 each representing 2.108 per cent of shares of Reliance Communications," Sistema Shyam Teleservices informed BSE today.

At the closing price of RCom shares, the transaction value comes to around Rs 142 crore.

SSTL merged with RCom in October 2017. The company had 10 per cent stake at the time of merger.

Last week some of the minority stakeholder in SSTL swapped their shares with that of RCom which brought down SSTL holding in the company to 7.093 per cent.

The share sold by SSTL in the open market brings down its stake in RCom to 4.59 per cent.