An Indian district court has reportedly given Norway’s Telenor the green light to participate in the nation’s upcoming 2G spectrum auction on its own or with an Indian partner other than real estate firm Unitech, its partner in joint venture…
An Indian district court has reportedly given Norway’s Telenor the green light to participate in the nation’s upcoming 2G spectrum auction on its own or with an Indian partner other than real estate firm Unitech, its partner in joint venture Uninor.
However, Unitech intends to challenge the Gurgaon district court’s decision to dismiss its plea to restrain Telenor from participating in the auction without it, India’s Economic Times reported.
The Norwegian telco announced in February that it would look for a new strategic partner in India after the country’s Supreme Court ordered the cancellation of 122 2G licences, including 22 belonging to Uninor. The joint venture partners have since filed numerous claims in relation to the dispute in various legal forums.
Originally scheduled for the end of August, the Supreme Court recently allowed the government to delay the auction until mid January 2013.
In mid-August, a telecoms ministry official told the Economic Times the government would allow foreign operators to take part in the auction without a local partner. However, he said successful bidders would have to team up with an Indian company within 90 days of receiving the spectrum as foreign ownership in mobile companies is capped at 74%.
Last month, Telenor settled US$1.77bn worth of short-term bank loans for Uninor, on which it had defaulted. At the time, Uninor indirectly blamed Unitech for the defaults, saying that one of its shareholders had repeatedly refused to fund the company and actively endeavoured to prevent the majority shareholder from doing so as well.
Telenor holds a 67.25% share in Uninor, while Unitech holds the remainder.
Telenor and Uninor were not immediately available for comment.
