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MUMBAI, March 4

THE Essar group will have a stake of 32-33 per cent in the consolidated cellular operations of Hutchison in India.

"This is inclusive of the options that we have under the agreements with the Hutchison group,'' said Mr Vikash Saraf, CEO, Essar Teleholdings, the holding company for the group's telecom and associated ventures.

Even if foreign direct investment in the telecom sector were raised, the Essar group would retain its stake. It had invested the equivalent of $300 million in telecom, he said.

"We are in the process of consolidating the various cellular operations under one company. At some point in the next couple of years, there will be an IPO, either domestic or overseas,'' said Mr Saraf.

Essar Teleholdings, in partnership with the Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa, runs the second largest cellular operations in the country.

Currently the various Hutchison operations are Hutchison Essar Telecom which runs the Delhi circle, Hutchison Essar South (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Chennai); Punjab cellular circle licence which has been newly bought over, has also been brought under Hutchison Essar South; Aircel Digilink (Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh).

The Essar group is not a partner in three other Hutchison ventures — Hutchison Max Telecom (Mumbai), Fascel (Gujarat, which is Hutchison with the Hinduja group) and Hutchison Telecom (East) (Kolkata).

The other stakeholders in the Hutchison group are several companies of the Kotak group, through special purpose vehicles in which Hutchison itself has stake.

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