Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile operator, has agreed to acquire a 49% stake in Qualcomm’s BWA venture for US$165m.
The company will buy a 26% stake controlled by holding company Global Group and local telecoms services provider Tulip…
Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile operator, has agreed to acquire a 49% stake in Qualcomm’s BWA venture for US$165m.
The company will buy a 26% stake controlled by holding company Global Group and local telecoms services provider Tulip Telecom, and the balance by way of subscription to fresh equity.
“The agreement contemplates that once commercial operations are launched, subject to certain terms and conditions, Bharti would assume complete ownership and financial responsibility for the BWA entities by the end of 2014,” Bharti stated.
This transaction comes just a few days after Qualcomm was finally awarded 4G spectrum in four circles following years of delay.
In June 2010, the US company had applied for BWA licences following a successful bid for frequencies in the circles of Mumbai, Delhi, Kerala and Haryana for US$1bn.
But the Department of Telecommunications initially refused to allocate the frequencies, arguing that Qualcomm was late in filing the application and had originally applied for four different licences, which was not allowed.
The dispute only came to an end at the beginning of May this year.
The sale of a stake to Bharti is in line with Qualcomm’s strategy announced in 2010, whereby the company would exit the venture after rolling out its network.
Bharti already has BWA licences in Kolkata, Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra and says it has launched services in the Kolkata and Karnataka circles.
Sunil Bharti Mittal, the company’s managing director, stated: “This partnership will combine the strength of Bharti’s national telecom footprint and Qualcomm’s technological leadership in the LTE TDD space.”
