Himanshu Singh 19 Report post Posted February 12, 2010 The fledgling Indian unit of Norway’s Telenor is considering buying a bigger rival, a reflection of its expanded ambitions for the country, and possibly heralding the arrival of consolidation in the jam-packed mobile phone market. Uninor is in the process of appointing bankers to advise it on the likely acquisition of a mid-sized operator and has already equipped itself with an internal report on consolidation in the mobile space, company executives said on condition of anonymity. Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse are among those with which it has initiated contact. Achieving scale quickly through an acquisition is seen giving the company a better chance of surviving an imminent shakeout than a standalone rollout, an executive said. Uninor, in which the Norwegian company owns a 67.25% stake and property developer Unitech the rest, launched operations just two months ago. It has over a million subscribers and is present in eight out of the country’s 22 telecom circles. “What we have previously said is that in the Indian market there will be at one stage consolidation. Telenor has also previously stated the group is currently not planning any major acquisitions. Uninor has just launched and our focus now is on establishing the brand as a preferred provider of mobile services in India,” Telenor spokeswoman Glenn Mandelid said in an email response. An acquisition would mark a change in strategy for Telenor, which had told investors that it would invest about Rs 15,500 crore to roll out a national network in India and target a modest 8% market share in the country by 2018. It is estimated that India will have over a billion mobile phone users by 2018. On Wednesday, Telenor said it had invested a total of Rs 6,135 crore in Unitech Wireless and is now in the process of expanding its services to another 3-6 regions. Fourteen firms are elbowing each other in the crowded Indian mobile phone market, which most analysts say has room for only about five players. The past few months have been characterised by a tariff war that has weakened phone firms as they bid to add new subscribers. Airtel, the biggest of them, has about a quarter of India’s 540 million cellphone subscribers and counts Reliance Communications and Vodafone Essar, both with over 90 million users, as its nearest rivals. State-owned BSNL, and Tata Teleservices, which has a partnership with Japan’s DoCoMo for GSM services, have around 60 million subscribers. Malaysia’s Maxis, the majority owner of Aircel, was reportedly in talks in 2008 to sell its stake in the company to AT&T, but no deal resulted. Aircel now has over 30 million subscribers. Idea Cellular, India’s fourth largest cellphone company, has over 60 million users. Among the new operators such as Datacom, Loop, S Tel, Sistema-Shyam and Swan (Etisalat), some of them have rolled out services, but more for form than substance. Most telecom companies are waiting for regulator Trai’s guidelines on mergers and acquisitions that would clear the air on consolidation. A senior official in the telecom ministry told ET that the government is not in favour of new licensees selling out to or merging with bigger telcos. “Ideally, we would prefer the new entrants to have a certain market share or a certain number of customers before talking of consolidation. But we still need to wait and see what Trai recommends,” he said. However, the official said the government would not have a problem with a new entrant buying out an established player. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shashank 8 Report post Posted February 12, 2010 Whom can they buy? Definately not Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance or even Tata Docomo! Even Idea will be heavy for them. May be Aircel? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KumaarShah 143 Report post Posted February 12, 2010 IMHO, Any of the above biggies as also Aircel can sell out, if the pricing offered is extremely good. As it is, there is too much competition and all the above are candidates. All this talk of buying out some biggie will arise only when there is some substance in the talk. Maybe they have already spoken to some operators. Lets wait and watch. In any case, if it happens, we will have to brace ourselves for a tariff hike.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KanagaDeepan 1,084 Report post Posted February 12, 2010 Yes, even almost all upcoming new operators are BIG and have a very strong background, like EtisalatDB, Datacom, ... So Aircel may be the option, since it just sold all its towers to Datacom now... May be LOOP MOBILE also, but Aircel is better and seems most possible and reasonable to buy now.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Himanshu Singh 19 Report post Posted February 12, 2010 Let ADAG sell of RGSM..I, for one, would be very happy.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
srk006 21 Report post Posted February 12, 2010 ^^^ ADAG will never think of selling off RCOM. Without RCOM what existence does ADAG have? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
::Hitesh:: 1,763 Report post Posted February 12, 2010 ^^^ ADAG will never think of selling off RCOM. Without RCOM what existence does ADAG have? he is saying about RGSM not about RCOM, Waiting for something new with new operators .. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
csmart 472 Report post Posted February 13, 2010 (edited) i dont think aircel will be interested as maxis malaysia is their JV partner. but you never know. i think Loop is strong contender. Ruia's may want to cash in and retain smaller stake as vodafone... also ther are rumours of RADAG hiving off RCOM for quit some time.. its cash rich and get money when it is on peak. RADAG has money cos like Reliance energy, power, big cinema (working big time with hollywood) etc.. Edited February 13, 2010 by csmart Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SUDYEcaZ 67 Report post Posted February 13, 2010 i dont think aircel will be interested as maxis malaysia is their JV partner. but you never know. i think Loop is strong contender. Ruia's may want to cash in and retain smaller stake as vodafone... also ther are rumours of RADAG hiving off RCOM for quit some time.. its cash rich and get money when it is on peak. RADAG has money cos like Reliance energy, power, big cinema (working big time with hollywood) etc.. Some rumors cab never be true ADAG will never be able to sell RCOM, Under there split settlement, Anil is supposed to offer Mukesh the right to first purchase RCOM, If he refuses then only he can sell it to other party. This was the reason why MTN and RCOM deal failed, Anil will never like to have Mukesh having controlling stake in RCOM.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KumaarShah 143 Report post Posted February 13, 2010 Nothing is impossible, anything can happen.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Himanshu Singh 19 Report post Posted February 15, 2010 RGSM can be easily sold off by ADAG if Ambani wants to..In any case he is trying,unsucessfully so far,to sell of FLAG.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
