Billionaire Sunil Mittal, arguably India 's most successful telecom entrepreneur, may be on the verge of starting another revolution in the country's corporate world. Mr Mittal, who has built his mobile operator Bharti Airtel from a bit player into a $40bn company in less than a decade, is now pondering a deal that could leave him holding a much smaller share in the group but turn it into a global player.
Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal's bid for telecom major MTN Group has to contend with some tough negotiations with Lebanon's former prime minister Najib Mikati, one of the wealthiest men in his country, as well as stiff black economic empowerment policies in South Africa that provide for a major share in the management of companies located in the country to blacks.
The 50 million customers span mobile, broadband and fixed telephone services, with wireless segment estimated to be contributing as much as 96 per cent (47.99 million) of the total base.
Bharti Retail, owned by Sunil Mittal's Bharti Enterprises, on Wednesday started retail operations in the country with neighbourhood store format, Easy Day, from Ludhiana in Punjab. Bharti has set up three stores in Ludhiana.Bharti has announced plans to invest Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) to set up stores across the country by 2012. The company said that it is looking at a retail space of 10 million square feet and employ 60,000 people.
US retail giant Wal-Mart, which has signed a joint venture with the Bharti Group for wholesale cash and carry business, will restrict itself to technical support and training in Sunil Mittal firm's foray into retail.
The stock market rout has caused the country's five richest, led by Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, to lose more than $10 billion in just about a fortnight.
India's retail giants, including Kishore Biyani's Future Group, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail and Sunil Mittal-promoted Bharti group, have started negotiations with the railways for leasing land for retail development.
The Bharti Group will on Monday announce a tie-up with Walmart for its retail operations, under which the world's largest retailer would manage the back end operations.
Bharti Enterprises, which had last year announced a $2.5-billion investment for its retail venture, is expected to announce its final plans, including that of opening of the first store, within the next two months.
Sunil Mittal opined that all new GSM players will lose out in 3 years and Vodafone almost echoed this view.
Coercion does not work. People will find ways to come around it. No one can legislate that industry cannot spend, or not be ostentatious, says Sunil Mittal.
Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd, has won this year's prestigious World Communication Award as the world's most influential person in telecommunications in 2004, said a company release.
Ahead of his scheduled meeting with Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin, who is bidding for Hutch-Essar, Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran on Wednesday said the government wanted good companies to enter the country.
As Vodafone started examining the books of Hutchison Essar, its existing partner Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said it has not been approached by anyone to buyout British telecom firm's stake in the company.
While Bharti's retail stores will be fully Indian, they will be able to take advantage of the tremendously low prices and technology advantages that Wal-Mart will bring to Mittal-Mart's sourcing.
Tesco has admitted that its plan to be the first multinational supermarket retailer in India has unravelled.
Sunil Mittal's Bharti Airtel maintained the top slot with a market share of 32.18 per cent and a total user base of 57.41 million. The company added 2.25 million users in January, up from 2.2 million added in December. COAI did not provide subscriber numbers of Reliance Communications, even though the CDMA major has GSM operations in the country's north-eastern circles.
CEO pay is not always the function of performance.
Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani continues to top India's richest list, according to the Hurun India Rich List 2014.
The net worth of the five richest - Mukesh and Anil Ambani, KP Singh, Sunil Mittal and Azim Premji - on Monday plunged by Rs 11,015 crore (Rs 110.15 billion), taking their total loss to about Rs 67,200 crore (close to $17 billion) since October 17, when the meltdown began on the bourses.
Bharti group on Tuesday announced a whopping $13 billion investment for the next five years of which at least 70 per cent would go into expansion of domestic telecom operations
India's 140 million mobile subscribers make missed calls to convey a pre-agreed message.
In yet another major outsourcing deal, Sunil Mittal-owned Bharti Group on Tuesday entered into a over Rs 580 crore ($125 million) deal with telecom major Nokia to expand the network in eight circles.
The Indian industry stands staunchly opposed to job reservations in the private sector, Bharti Group promoter and Confederation of Indian Industry vice-president Sunil Mittal has said as he vowed to fight the move at every fora.
Bharti Televentures, in association with a Canada-based firm, on Tuesday launched Blackberry handheld devices offering 'always on' connectivity, targeted at high-end customers.
Sunil Mittal, promoter of India's largest private telecom company Bharti, on Thursday said any law to impose quotas would only encourage contract labour.\n
Sunil Mittal's Bharti, in which British telecom firm Vodafone has 10 per cent stake, said on Thursday it is yet to hear a final word from the UK-based operator on its plans to buyout Hutchison Telecom's stake in Indian joint venture Hutch-Essar.
Bharti Airtel will start talks for "disengagement" from its partner Vodafone once the UK company decides on its future course of action in India.
What is Wal-Mart? When was it set up? Who owns it? Read on to find out.
Bharti Group chairman Sunil Mittal on Tuesday said the unified licensing regime proposed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India could not be pursued in its present form, as it was in contradiction of the TDSAT judgement.
Bharti Airtel operates in 20 countries across Asia and Africa and is the world's fourth-biggest cellular carrier by customers
Telecom regulator TRAI has issued a show cause notice to Bharti Group, offering mobile services under AirTel brand, for violation of licence conditions by continuing a particular service inspite of the government's instruction to stop it.
A sharp dresser, with a prominent jawline, Kohli will now have to contend with aggressive competition from Vodafone-Essar, perhaps the toughest so far in his career.
Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said there was no government scrutiny on the company's decision to buy back 5.6 per cent stake from Vodafone and the transaction was within the foreign investment norms in the telecom sector.
Sunil Mittal-promoted Bharti Airtel on Wednesday said it has reported a 20.85 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 2,239.30 crore (Rs 22.39 billion) for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2009.
After dominating the Indian mobile telephone market, Bharti Airtel is all set to launch 3-in-1 services - phone, internet and cable TV - across 90 cities to its fixed-line customers.
Mittal said the evidence, on the basis of which he has been arrested, was not sufficient as no drugs, as per the tests carried out by the Apollo hospital, were found in Mahajan's body.
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