Negotiations that would see Russia’s Sistema take a majority stake in Indian operator Tata Teleservices have reportedly reached an advanced stage.
Sistema is talking to Japanese mobile operator NTT Docomo for its 26% holding, and with India’s Tata…
Negotiations that would see Russia’s Sistema take a majority stake in Indian operator Tata Teleservices have reportedly reached an advanced stage.
Sistema is talking to Japanese mobile operator NTT Docomo for its 26% holding, and with India’s Tata Group, which is looking to reduce its majority stake to a minority stake, reported the Economic Times citing two people familiar with the negotiations.
The Russian group has mandated Rothschild for the deal while Tata Group has enlisted Standard Chartered to advise it, added the report.
However, a transaction will reportedly not happen until India’s telecoms regulator announces a new M&A policy. Currently Sistema would be required to either surrender Tata Tele’s spectrum licences or pay to retain them.
The target floats on the Bombay stock exchange and has a market capitalisation of Rs12bn (US$202m). Its share price has dropped almost 52% over the past year.
In a statement, Sistema said: “As a policy, Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd does not comment on any kind of speculation. The company would like to reiterate that its immediate focus is to efficiently run its nine circle operations and turn OIBDA positive by end of 2014.”
Tata Group and NTT Docomo could not be reached for comment before the press deadline.
Tata Tele has a 7.65% share of India’s wireless market according to the regulator’s Q1 2013 data, while Sistema’s local operator, MTS India, has 1.37%.
