The Hinduja Group on Friday said it is likely to start examining the books of Hutchison Essar Ltd next week and has arranged funds for a possible bid to acquire a controlling stake in the mobile firm. The group further announced that it is also keen to pick controlling stake in Telecom Italia.

"We are in the process to start the due diligence. Once other players finish the due diligence of HTIL's book, our process is likely to start next week", vice-chairman of the Group, A K Das told PTI.

While British telecom firm Vodafone is understood to have finished due diligence, Essar's bankers and Reliance Communications have completed the first round of the exercise.

Das said the decision and timing of the bidding would depend on information coming out of the due diligence. "Once the book reading is complete, the bidding should happen this month only. It does not look like to go past this month," he said.

Das said Hindujas are a global company and the necessary funding for the acquisition is in place.  "Whatever needs to be done for funding, all are in place... it could be a mixture of debt and equity� it is all organised", he said, adding funds were not a concern. IndusInd Investment is the advsior to the Hindujas.

Asked whether they were interested in acquiring the entire 100 per cent stake in HEL or the 67 per cent offered by HTIL, he said:  "Whatever is on offer from HTIL, we are interested... which could mean 67 per cent"

Hinduja Group president Gopichand Hinduja had earlier said that they had received a "favourable response" from Hutchison Telecom. HEL, the fourth-largest cellular player in India, is being eyed by the likes of Vodafone, Reliance Communications and Essar, the 33 per cent joint venture partner.

Hinduja TMT had last year offloaded its residual 5.11 per cent stake in Hutch-Essar for $450 million to HTIL.

Telecom Italia pie

Hinduja is among many suitors for this Italian telecom giant. TI's biggest shareholder is controlled by Pirelli, the Italian tyre and real estate group.

According to media reports, the Hinduja Group is not in direct consultation with TI, but sources close to the deal said that the group was studying the viability of picking up a pie.

Both Hinduja and Pirelli refused to comment on a possible deal.

The race for Hutch-Essar: Complete coverage