Indian mobile operator Uninor has announced its majority shareholder, Norwegian telecoms group Telenor, has directly settled its short-term loans totalling Rs98bn (US$1.77bn), thereby allowing it to continue operations.
The settlement came after Uninor,…
Indian mobile operator Uninor has announced its majority shareholder, Norwegian telecoms group Telenor, has directly settled its short-term loans totalling Rs98bn (US$1.77bn), thereby allowing it to continue operations.
The settlement came after Uninor, in which Telenor has a 67.25% share and Indian real estate company Unitech has the remainder, defaulted on the loans with Indian and international banks, fully guaranteed by Telenor.
In a statement today, Uninor indirectly blamed Unitech for the defaults.
“One of Uninor’s shareholders has repeatedly refused to fund the company through its own funds and has also actively worked to stop the majority shareholder from doing so,” the company stated.
Uninor added that, in the absence of a rights offer, it had relied on the short-term loans but its application for extensions for some of them had been turned down, prompting lending banks to claim under the guarantees.
Telenor and Unitech have been involved in an ongoing dispute, leading the former to seek a new Indian partner for Uninor.
However, the Indian government’s reported recent decision to allow foreign operators to participate in the planned 2G auction without a local partner means Telenor may be able to call off or postpone its search.
Originally scheduled for the end of August, the government recently asked the Supreme Court to delay the auction until November.
The spectrum sale comes after the Supreme Court ordered, in February, the cancellation of 122 2G licences, arguing they had been illegally granted in 2008.
