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Bharti set to win seven mobile licences

Telecom group Bharti Enterprises looked set to win at least seven new mobile licences being auctioned by the government, bidding details showed.

Details of the second round of price bids opened by the government on Monday showed that the New Delhi-based group had edged out competition, mainly petrochemicals and refining giant Reliance Group, in the bidding for the fourth mobile operator licences.

Bharti, through group company Bharti Cellular, had applied for 11 licences and bidding details showed it was on course to win the licences for Bombay, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

PTI reports: The government will get at least Rs 14.86 billion, Rs 1.96 billion more than the first round of bidding for the fourth cellular slot, with Bharti Group ensuring the licence for Bombay circle for Rs 2.04 billion.

In Bombay, Reliance-promoted Reliable Internet, the only second bidder in the cirlce, is out of the race as it did not bid more than the reserve price of Rs 2.0365 billion.

Reliable bid only Rs 901.5 million in the second round for the circle.

At the end of second round of bidding for the fourth cellular player in 17 circles, Bharti is leading the race for acquiring licences for seven circles out of 11 they bid for, highly placed sources said.

For the Delhi circle, Birla-AT&T combine is ahead of Reliable and Escorts with the bid amount at Rs 1.706 billion which would now become the reserve price for the third and final round on July 19.

In Calcutta circle, competition is hot between Reliable and Bharti with the former having quoted Rs 780 million in the second round, finally ahead of Bharti whose bid amount remained unchanged at Rs 778.5 million which was the reserve price.

Barakhamba Sales, a company promoted by C Sivasankaran's Sterling Group, continued to maintain its lead in all the four circles of Madras at Rs 1.268 million, Maharashtra at Rs 1.128 million, Karnataka at Rs 1.68 million and Andhra Pradesh at Rs 1.030 billion.

Reliable Internet, a Reliance Associate company, opted not to match the reserve price in 13 out of 15 circles it had bid for.

The company is in race only for Calcutta and Delhi, sources said adding that the company seemed to be making a serious attempt only for the Calcutta circle.

The government hopes to award companies the right to be the fourth cellular operator in India's 21 telecom zones by the end of August after a three-step financial bidding process.

The Reliance Group, which had bid for 15 licences through a company Reliable Internet Services Ltd, was out of the race in 14 telecom zones, bidding details showed.

Hong Kong's Hutchison Telecom, which had put in bids for four licences, looked set to win the Andhra Pradesh licence and was in the race for the licences for Madras, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

Birla AT&T Communications was in the race for the Karnataka, Madras and New Delhi licences.

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