Norway’s Telenor has applied to India’s Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to gain full ownership of its mobile arm Uninor for Rs7.8bn (US$130.6m).
Vodafone was the first operator to take advantage of a change in local regulation last year…
Norway’s Telenor has applied to India’s Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to gain full ownership of its mobile arm Uninor for Rs7.8bn (US$130.6m).
Vodafone was the first operator to take advantage of a change in local regulation last year which now allows foreign companies to own 100% of their telecoms unit in the country, as opposed to a maximum of 74% previously.
Since then, the US giant AT&T and Russia’s Sistema have also filed applications with the FIPB to buy out their respective Indian telecoms subsidiary.
Telenor is seeking approval to invest an additional Rs7.8bn in Uninor, which would allow it to acquire the 26% stake owned by its joint venture partner, local firm Lakshdeep Investments.
Sigve Brekke, the Norwegian company’s head of Asia, told local media earlier this year that Telenor was considering acquiring all the shares it does not own in Uninor “now that we know it’s allowed”.
But he added at the time that there was “no immediate plan to do this” because all the attention was on the spectrum auction.
In February, Uninor secured additional frequencies in the 1,800 MHz band in seven existing service areas for US$136m to improve its voice and data capacity.
Telenor ended its partnership with Indian real estate group Unitech in Uninor following a bitter dispute last year. It later brought in Lakshdeep as its new JV partner.
Uninor, which has over 30 million subscribers, is currently number eight in the wireless market, populated with 12 operators in total.
