The Hindu Business Line : Bharti ups the ante to face Vodafone

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Barcelona Feb. 12 The Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti Airtel, Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal, on Monday said that the company would up the ante knowing that Vodafone would come hard to grab more market share.

Mr Mittal also said that Vodafone's partial exit from Bharti would allow Airtel to look at expanding outside India as it would not run the risk of having to compete with one of its own equity holder — Vodafone.

Restraint removed

"Now that Vodafone is out, we can compete with it in other markets. I think Bharti is ready to move outside India," Mr Mittal said.

Bharti Enterprises has bought back 5.6 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel from the UK-based Vodafone for $1.6 billion to be paid over 18 months.

The move comes after Vodafone emerged as the highest bidder for acquiring the 67 per cent stake held by the Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecom International Ltd in Indian cellular services provider Hutchison Essar.

Singtel interest

Speaking on the sidelines of the 3GSM World Congress, Mr Mittal said that Singtel has expressed interest in increasing its stake in Bharti Airtel, but no decision has been taken on whether he would sell the stake acquired from Vodafone to the Singapore-based company.

When asked to comment on the Vodafone bid, Mr Mittal said that if he were representing Vodafone, then he would have paid a few billion dollars more to acquire Hutch.

He said that the bid value was not too high for Vodafone because Hutch opens a huge door for the UK-based operator to get a foothold into the emerging market.

Vodafone had acquired the 10 per cent stake for $1.5 billion. Vodafone is now left with a little over 4 per cent stake in Bharti.

Preferred partner

While Mr Mittal has sounded the battle cry with Vodafone, on the other hand, Bharti has signed an infrastructure sharing agreement with Vodafone, which would allow both operators to share nearly 70,000 mobile towers across the country.

Bharti would also be Vodafone's preferred long distance telephony service provider.

Mr Mittal said that the agreement would lead to huge savings for both companies.

Bharti would make Vodafone its preferred roaming partner, as per the agreement.