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June 16, 2001
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Money > Business Headlines > Report June 16, 2001 |
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Bharti to buy out BT from cell biz tooThomas K Thomas & Bipin Chandran Bharti Enterprises is buying British Telecom's 44 per cent stake in its cellular service subsidiary, Bharti Cellular, for an undisclosed amount. The move signals BT's exit from the Bharti Group. The Indian telecom major had in April bought BT's stake in Bharti BT Internet and Bharti VSAT. Top sources close to the deal said British Telecom has indicated its willingness to exit from Bharti Cellular, the cellular service provider in Delhi. Declining to disclose the deal amount, sources said Bharti has approached its merchant bankers to assist in finalising the deal. The latest move comes after BT said late last year that the company was evaluating a number of options including selling its assets in India. The company is fighting its biggest crisis since privatisation, having announced plans to hive off its wireless and network divisions to help cut its debt as also disposing its minority stake in Asian and Canadian ventures. In India, BT has a stake in just one more venture-BT Mahindra-in which it holds 43 per cent stake. Sources in Bharti said that buying out BT from the company's biggest and most profitable business would enable it to fructify plans to merge the entire cellular business into one holding company. Bharti currently offers cellular services in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh through its various subsidiaries. The company has also bought the licence for Punjab, which also will be amalgamated into the proposed holding company. In a major restructuring move, Bharti in April had announced the buying out of BT's 49 per cent stake in Bharti BT Internet Ltd, which owned the Mantra On-Line brand and the 50 per cent stake in Bharti BT VSAT. Bharti had then not bought out BT's stake in Bharti Cellular as the latter had not indicated its decision to exit the business. Powered by YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO READ:
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