Indian conglomerate Essar Group was still late last week insisting that its 33% stake in Vodafone Essar,the JV it owns with UK mobile operator Vodafone, is worth more than the latter’s US$5bn buyout offer.
This comes following an Indian court’s ruling…
Indian conglomerate Essar Group was still late last week insisting that its 33% stake in Vodafone Essar,the JV it owns with UK mobile operator Vodafone, is worth more than the latter’s US$5bn buyout offer.
This comes following an Indian court’s ruling that two Essar units, India Securities and Essar Telecommunications Holdings, may merge. The Madras High Court also ruled that Vodafone may not oppose the move again, having already filed for it to be blocked.
Before the acquisition deal – accomplished via a put option – was announced in March, Vodafone had criticised Essar for considering a reverse listing of its own telecoms business because it could affect the value of the JV.
Essar, which is present across many sectors, had been planning to merge the unlisted Essar Telecommunications into another part of the Essar Group, India Securities (ISL), which was listed.
ISL responded by saying that Vodafone had no right to oppose this merger since it was not a shareholder in or creditor of either Essar Telecommunications or ISL.
