Bharti's plan to buy TIW pie nixed

Even as the government deferred the decision to enhance foreign investment limit in telecom, Sunil Mittal-owned Bharti Group said on Thursday that its offer to buy Canadian TIW's 27.5 per cent stake in Hexacom has been terminated as one of the shareholders has exercised the first right of refusal.

In a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange, Bharti Tele Venture informed that "as regards the agreement entered into with Telesystems (Mauritius) Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Telesystems International Wireless Inc, Canada, to buy its 27.5 per cent equity interest in Hexacom (India), Bharti's offer to TIW stands terminated."

"This is because one of the two major shareholders have exercised the right of first refusal and offered to acquire the stake," Bharti's notice to BSE added.

Last month, Bharti had offered Rs 102 crore (Rs 1.02 billion) to buy TIW's stake in Hexacom, a cellular service provider in Rajasthan.

Other shareholders are Shyam Telelink and state-owned Telecom Consultants India Ltd with 40 and 30 per cent stake respectively in Hexacom.

Earlier this week, Department of Telecom had turned down TCIL's proposal to buy TIW's stake.

This would mean that decks are cleared now for Shyam Telelink to acquire TIW's stake subject to certain clauses of the shareholders agreement.

Meanwhile, in a separate notice to BSE, Shyam has said it has exercised its first right of refusal to acquire shares.

"The final shareholding of the company in Hexacom will be known only upon the other shareholders' exercising their first right of refusal and will be intimated on final closing of the deal," it added.