Comments
Bahrain's Batelco Group on Wednesday said that it will sell its 42.7 per cent stake in STel back to the Indian partner for $175 million.
The move comes after the Supreme Court ordered cancellation of licences issued in January 2008.
STel's six licences will be cancelled as a result of the court's order.
Batelco said that it will sell its stake by October end. The Bahrain-based company had acquired the stake from the Sivasankaran Group for the same amount in 2009 through two transactions.
In a statement issued today, the Batelco Group said that it had decided on the stake sale in April last year adding that its financial accounts for April-June had disclosed that the Indian asset was “held for sale”.
“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,” Batelco said in a statement.
STel held licences in Assam, North-East, Bihar, Orissa, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir and the company is estimated to have a subscriber base of over 3.6 million.
Batelco, however, said it was still interested in investing in the Indian telecom sector.
“As Batelco continues to grow and diversify its operations, we remain interested in other investment opportunities that will enable us to participate in the Indian telecom market. We are actively exploring all options in this respect, ” Batelco's Group Chief Executive, Mr Shaikh Mohamed bin Isa Al Khalifa, said.
Market analysts said that Batelco may come in through the auction route with another partner.
Batelco will be the first foreign telecom firm exiting the Indian telecom market.
Norway's Telenor, which owns 62.7 per cent stake in Uninor, had recently said that exiting was an option.
Telenor has already written off about $721 million after the Supreme Court's decision.
The other foreign investors affected by the court ruling include Russia's Sistema and UAE's Etisalat.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.