US operator AT&T and Etisalat of the UAE look set to do battle for a minority stake in India’s second largest mobile operator Reliance Communications.
The board of Reliance has said that it is happy to proceed with the sale of a 26% stake in the business…
US operator AT&T and Etisalat of the UAE look set to do battle for a minority stake in India’s second largest mobile operator Reliance Communications.
The board of Reliance has said that it is happy to proceed with the sale of a 26% stake in the business providing that any offer reflects a decent premium on its current share price, which values the entire company at around US$7.75bn. Last week there were reports that Etisalat would pay US$3.8bn for a 26% stake before looking to buy a further 20% on the open market.
Etisalat chairman Mohammad Omran told Reuters that the company had not submitted an offer for Reliance but that it was studying ‘several opportunities in India, among them is Reliance’.
AT&T is frequently attributed with an interest in buying into the Indian market although previous attempts, most recently an effort to buy a stake in BSNL, have been unsuccessful. Sources in the region have often been sceptical of its ambition to become a serious player in the world’s fastest growing mobile market but the firm is reported to have held early stage talks.
MTN, which has also been mentioned as a possible suitor of Reliance after the two companies held merger talks in 2008, has denied any interest in such a transaction.
Reliance is keen to recoup some funds having agreed last month to pay US$1.8bn for 3G spectrum licences across India.