Bahrain's Batelco to exit India, to sell stake in STel
Wednesday February 08, 2012 10:44:51 PM,
IANS
|
New Delhi: The Supreme
Court verdict cancelling 122 telecom licences claimed its first
casualty as Bahrain-based Batelco Wednesday announced its exit
from India, selling its stake in mobile firm STel.
STel, which had acquired licences to operate in six circles
including Odisha, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh, is a joint venture
between Batelco and Sky City Foundation, owned by former Aircel
promoter and serial entrepreneur C. Sivasankaran.
BMIC Limited, a 100 percent Batelco-owned subsidiary company, had
acquired the stake in STel via two transactions in May and June
2009 for $174.5 million.
"Batelco Group, the Middle Eastern regional telecommunications
operator of reference with operations across seven countries,
today (Wednesday) announced its agreement for the sale of its
shareholding in STel, a mobile operator in India," the company
said in a statement.
"This is a part of an earlier understanding with its Indian
partner to exit given the circumstances surrounding the 2G probe
in India over the past 12 months," it added.
The agreed time frame for completion of the stake sale is the end
of October 2012.
The Supreme Court has given all the affected firms four months
time to shut shop and asked the government auction the free the
spectrum.
Another telecom operator which has also hinted at exiting India
business, Uninor's parent firm Telenor has said it would fight for
its rights and proposed restricting older players from the 2G
auction whenever the government conducts it.
Uninor's case has also been taken up at a diplomatic level by
Norway. The country's IT minister Tuesday met Communications
Minister Kapil Sibal.
Even Russia's Communications Minister Igor Shchyogolev is reported
to visit India to express the country's concern over its
investments in the Indian firm, Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL).
SSTL, a joint venture between Russia's Sistema and India's Shyam
Group, which provides its services under the MTS brand name, has
also said that it reserves the right to protect its interests by
using all available judicial remedies and was mulling the option
of filing a review petition in the apex court.
Sistema holds a 56.68 percent stake in the venture, while the
Russian government holds 17.14 percent and the Shyam Group of
India has another 23.98 percent. The remaining 2.2 is publicly
owned.
Another foreign operator, which has also been affected by the
Supreme Court's ruling, is Dubai's Etisalat. The company protested
the apex court's decision saying it had no knowledge of what
occurred in the licence application process for Swan, which was
conducted by the Indian promoters and their associates.
According to Etisalat, the promoters subsequently marketed the
Swan investment opportunity to Etisalat through an international
investment bank.
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