savramesh 37 Report post Posted June 2, 2009 Economic Times 1 Jun 2009, 1939 hrs IST NEW DELHI: Telecom Minister A Raja on Monday virtually ruled out the BSNL-MTNL merger saying it is difficult due to lack of identical factor between them. "Identical factors are not there legally for BSNL-MTNL merger," Raja said. The Minister, who assumed charge today, however, said the Department was keen on listing of BSNL and advised PSU management to start talks with the Employees Union for taking the company public. The union has been opposing the listing. Late Communication Minister Pramod Mahajan had proposed the merger and was revived by Raja's predecessor Dayanidhi Maran for synergy purpose. Government holds 56.25 per cent in MTNL and it is listed in NYSE and in India. BSNL is 100 per cent owned by government. MTNL provides telecom services in Delhi and Mumbai, while BSNL serves the rest of India. On plans to list BSNL in the bourses, Raja said the management has been advised to initiate talks with the employees union. "We want to list BSNL... We want to create a consensus for it. We have asked the BSNL management to talk to the union", said the Minister. Estimates suggest that BSNL is worth 100 billion dollars and dilution of 10 per cent stake would help the company raise 10 billion dollars (about Rs 48,000 crore). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
savramesh 37 Report post Posted January 9, 2010 BSNL selloff likely soon, no BSNL-MTNL merger: Pitroda Source NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister's IT advisor Sam Pitroda said on Friday the Government is not planning to merge BSNL and MTNL, but efforts are on to sell stake in BSNL. "There is no move to merge BSNL and MTNL", he told reporters here today, however, adding the Government is considering selling a part of its stakes in BSNL and will move in "quickly" in that direction. A high-level review meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh earlier this week had agreed to consider a suggestion for immediate sale of 10 per cent Government equity in BSNL. Pitroda, who is also coordinating the release of spectrum by the Defence forces for the upcoming 3G auction, is learnt to have called for an immediate disinvestment of 10 per cent Government equity in BSNL, a proposal that is expected to be considered at the top most level of the Government soon. The review assumes importance in the wake of the deteriorating revenues of the telecom PSUs, particularly BSNL, which is also confronting a controversy over a Rs 35,000-crore expansion plan. He said there is no plan to come out with a follow-on-public offer of MTNL. It can be recalled that the Government had earlier contemplated to merge BSNL and MTNL thinking the move would help synergise operations of both the state-owned telcos. The DoT and boards of both companies had discussed the issue many times, but never came to a conclusion due to various issues like MTNL's listing, BSNL's huge workforce, employees' objection among others. BSNL is 100 per cent owned by the Government while in MTNL it holds 56.25 per cent stake. BSNL operates all over the country except in Delhi and Mumbai, while MTNL operates only in these two metros. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
srk006 21 Report post Posted January 9, 2010 What is the actual motive of selling stake in BSNL to public? (Anyone, Any idea?? ) As I see, there is no need of cash. BSNL is having surplus of thousands of crores. How does selling stake increase revenue and hold market share? It doesn't. BSNL just needs to remove those non-working, non-committed, inefficient staff(both top-execs as well as lower cadres) and replace them with qualified and energetic people! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KanagaDeepan 1,084 Report post Posted January 9, 2010 (edited) BSNL just needs to remove those non-working, non-committed, inefficient staff(both top-execs as well as lower cadres) and replace them with qualified and energetic people! Very nice idea.. That will definitely bring positive change in BSNL for sure.. But do you think it is easy to FIRE OFF 95% of the staffs incl. top management to last cadres people , especially with the presence of Emp Union??? Edited January 9, 2010 by kanagadeepan 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
srk006 21 Report post Posted January 9, 2010 ^^^ well.. Their union doesn't want to dilute stake.. for that the company must survive in the long run... to accomplish that they will need to do (sooner or later) what I said above... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
