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(Pi Bureau )
Lucknow : UK’s Vodafone Group will soon merge its Indian subsidiary with local rival Idea Cellular within two years, Idea officials said on Monday.
Vodafone will own 45.1% of the merged entity, after it transfers about 4.9% to promoters of Idea and/or their affiliates for Rs 38.74 billion ($592.15 million) in cash, Idea said, announcing one of the biggest merger in the telecom space.
The combined Vodafone-Idea group would India’s largest telecom operation with almost 400 million customers, or 35% market share.
The board of directors of Idea Cellular at a meeting approved the “scheme of amalgamation of Vodafone India Limited (VIL) and its wholly owned subsidiary Vodafone Mobile Services Limited (VMSL) with the company”, Idea said in a regulatory filing.
The transaction is subject to necessary approvals from concerned authorities, including SEBI, department of telecom and RBI etc.
“Upon the amalgamation becoming effective, the entire business of VIL and VMSL, excluding VIL’s investment in Indus Towers Limited, its international network assets and information technology platforms, will vest in the company,” the filing said.
The merger comes after India’s mobile industry was thrown into turmoil with the launch last year of Reliance Jio Info com, the new 4G mobile broadband network built at a cost of more than $20 billion by India’s richest businessman, Mukesh Ambani, as part of his Reliance Industries conglomerate.
