Japanese telco NTT Docomo considers raising its stake in India-based Tata Teleservices to 35% by Q1 2012, according to the Times of India citing sources close to the matter.
NTT Docomo reportedly has two call options, one in March 2012 and the other…
Japanese telco NTT Docomo considers raising its stake in India-based Tata Teleservices to 35% by Q1 2012, according to the Times of India citing sources close to the matter.
NTT Docomo reportedly has two call options, one in March 2012 and the other in 2014, which would allow it to become Tata Tele’s largest shareholder. But the company can also decide to sell its entire stake in the Indian telco in case it does not achieve certain performance benchmarks.
In 2008, NTT bought a 26% stake in Tata Tele for approximately US$2.7bn.
In March this year, the Japanese company invested US$179m in order to maintain its 26% stake in Tata Tele, after the Indian telco conducted a rights issue to fund its 3G expansion.
In recent months, NTT Docomo has been increasing its stakes in several subsidiaries in order to extract value from them.
Most recently, it upped its interest in local mobile broadcaster mmbi by about 10% to 60.45%. Before that, in May 2011, it bought an additional 2% stake in Philippine telco PLDT.
NTT Docomo was not immediately available for comments before the press deadline.
