State-owned Telecommunications Consultants India (TCIL) reportedly plans to appoint SBI Caps shortly to assist it in the sale of its stake in Bharti Hexacom.
TCIL will ask SBI to conduct a valuation of its 30% stake in the telecoms operator, upon which…
State-owned Telecommunications Consultants India (TCIL) reportedly plans to appoint SBI Caps shortly to assist it in the sale of its stake in Bharti Hexacom.
TCIL will ask SBI to conduct a valuation of its 30% stake in the telecoms operator, upon which the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will base the reserve price for the sale, the Economic Times cited an unidentified TCIL executive as saying.
TCIL intends to finalise SBI’s mandate at a board meeting later this month, for which it will seek DoT approval, the executive reportedly noted.
The engineering and consultancy company abandoned plans to exit its investment in Hexacom in 2011 after the business’ performance improved and it introduced 3G services, potentially attracting higher valuations.
However, in July last year, the Indian government reportedly said it was reconsidering a sale, which would help TCIL generate cash to meet its capex and opex needs and execute new projects.
At the time, the 30% stake was estimated at around Rs18bn (US$280m) but TCIL has been hoping to secure a higher valuation.
In May, TCIL managing director Vimal Wakhlu was quoted as saying he was hopeful the government would expedite the sale process, which has been in the pipeline since 2009.
Hexacom has about 18 million customers in two of India’s circles, Rajasthan and Northeast. It is majority-owned by telecoms giant Bharti Airtel, which has the right of first refusal in case of a sale by the state.
