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Home » News » General General » Vodafone Completes Essar-Hutch Deal For $10.9bn
Vodafone Completes Essar-Hutch Deal For $10.9bn
By: IANS   |   May 10, 2007
Global mobile telephony giant Vodafone has formally acquired the controlling stake in Hutch-Essar from Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications International for $10.9 billion.

"I am delighted that, having secured all the necessary regulatory approvals, we are now able to complete this important transaction and move onto the process of integration," India-born Vodafone chief executive Arun Sarin said.

"India is a tremendously exciting and fast moving market and I am confident that the Hutch-Essar business would make a major contribution to the Vodafone group over the coming years," Sarin added in a statement.

London-headquartered Vodafone had said Feb 11 that it had concluded its talks to pick up a 52-percent stake in Hutch-Essar from Hutchison Telecommunications, a company based in Hong Kong, controlled by industrialist Li-Kashing.

But the takeover was challenged and even went to court over whether the foreign equity component after the acquisition would adhere to the 74 percent cap imposed by the Indian government in telecom service companies.

India's Essar Group of the Ruias has a 33-percent stake in the venture, of which 22 percent is held through a foreign source Essar Mauritius.

The residual stake is owned by Asim Ghosh, managing director of Hutch-Essar, Max India chairman Analjit Singh and infrastructure finance major HDFC. But Ghosh and Singh had taken Hutchison as guarantor for a loan to buy the stake.

Hence, the matter was left to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), a government body headed by Finance Secretary Ashok Jha, to decide on the matter - which gave its clearance on April 27.

And within a week of the board's approval, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram gave his formal nod May 4, paving the way for the acquisition.

It has been decided that Essar's vice chairman Ravi Ruia would be chairman of the new joint venture while Vodafone's Sarin would be vice-chairman.

Vodafone has said it would invest $2 billion within two years in the Hutch-Essar telecom venture to particularly tap the rural market, expand infrastructure and improve the tele-density in the country.
 
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Post a Comment on “Vodafone Completes Essar-Hutch Deal For $10.9bn”
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The Hutch has to improve well in the state of Kerala as I know, here the density of users of mobile phone is very high, however, I fee that people are mostly worried about the coverage of network. The bsnl covers almost full kerala but their service is too bad, hence if Hutch widens the coverage in Kerala, the customer base will increase because the quality of service of Hutch is very good.
Sunil K.V @ May 10, 2007
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