The spat between Essar and Hutchison for the acquisition of BPL (Mumbai) circle is far from over with the Indian corporate maintaining that the Department of Telecom approval for acquisition of BPL shares is yet to come.
Official sources said the proposal of Essar, which was seeking to increase its equity held through foreign subsidiaries by 6.26 per cent to 22.04 per cent has been approved.
Hutchison Telecom International Limited, which recently sold its 67 per cent control in mobile service provider Hutchison Essar to Vodafone, has filed a caveat in the Bombay high court requesting that it be made a party to any suit by the Ruias.
Legal wrangle looms over sale to foreign firm, fund.
"Kraft's acquisition of Cadbury is a global acquisition, where some value is attributable to India. This is different from Vodafone, where the transfer of a single share of the offshore company by Hutch resulted in the Indian business getting transferred to Vodafone," said Pranay Bhatia, associate partner at legal firm Economic Laws Practice.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Wednesday issued another directive to Bharti, Spice and Hutchison-Essar following blocking of calls originating from the basic telecom players offering limited mobile services.
Pranab Mukherjee's stewardship of the economy will stand out as much for the manner in which he managed controversies as for creating quite a few of them, says A K Bhattacharya.
Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecom Limited is expected to submit details of loans to two Indian minority shareholders this week to the finance ministry, which is looking into alleged breach of foreign direct investment norms in Hutch-Essar.
The retrospective tax decision reversing the January 2012 Supreme Court verdict in the Vodafone case has often been cited as the reason for foreign investors losing confidence in India as an investment destination.
In effect, companies which put their money in telecom in India would have done much better to keep the cash in bank and earn interest.
