Bharti will have to deal with 15 different regulatory regimes in Africa as opposed to just one in India.
'If you are going to have only a handful of telecom players on whom the entire dream of Digital India rests, it's important they are financially sustainable.'
Bharti Group offering mobile services under AirTel brand has become the first private telecom conglomerate to complete nationwide network in all 23 circles at an investment of Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion) till now.
In his first public appearance after talks were called off on September 30, Mittal, who is CMD of Bharti Airtel said, "No further talks with MTN and the current round is over."
Traders' body CAIT on Wednesday wrote to Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani and 50 other captains of India Inc, including Ratan Tata, Azim Premji, Gautam Adani, Ajay Piramal, Anand Mahindra and Sunil Bharti Mittal seeking their support in its campaign to boycott Chinese goods. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) also urged Kumar Mangalam Birla, Vikram Kirloskar, Rahul Bajaj, Shiv Nadar, Pallonji Mistry, Uday Kotak, Nusli Wadia, Shashi Ruia, Madhukar Parekh, Harsh Mariwala, Satish Reddy and Pankaj Patel, among other prominent industrialists, to join its 'Bhartiya Samaan-Humaara Abhimaan' campaign.
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Friday said it has signed an agreement to buy Vodafone's 4.7 per cent stake in Indus Towers on the condition that the proceeds will be used for investment in Vodafone Idea and clearing its dues towards the mobile tower company. Debt-ridden Vodafone Idea (VIL) has been unable to pay dues to Indus Towers and both VIL and promoter Vodafone have proposed a payment plan to clear the outstanding amount by July 15. In the meantime, VIL has committed to pay certain minimum amount each month to Indus Towers.
Tesco has admitted that its plan to be the first multinational supermarket retailer in India has unravelled.
Special CBI Judge O P Saini adjourned Monday's proceedings in the wake of stay granted by the Supreme Court on separate pleas filed by Mittal and Ruia challenging the March 19 order of the trial court summoning them as accused in the case.
Demanding a level playing field for the old operators, Bharti group chief Sunil Mittal told PTI: 'our view is that the spectrum given to us and other operators from time to time is under a policy and there is no question of any additional payment for this.'
Bharti Walmart, the joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Walmart, the world's largest retailer, is also expected to open cash and carry stores in the South in the next 12-24 months.
The two also met corporate affairs minister Salman Khurshid, who asked them to keep his ministry in the loop.
Bharti Airtel will start talks for "disengagement" from its partner Vodafone once the UK company decides on its future course of action in India.
Special CBI Judge O P Saini adjourned today's proceedings after advocate Siddharth Agarwal, appearing for Mittal, said the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear in March the separate pleas filed by Mittal and Ruia challenging the March 19, 2013 order of the trial court summoning them as accused in the case.
Taking advantage of liberalised norms for external commercial borrowings to raise upto $500 million through the automatic route, Sunil Mittal-promoted Bharti Group is planning to tap the overseas market next fiscal.
Bharti Enterprises on Tuesday said it expected to start its life insurance venture with French major Axa by June end.
With investors seeking clarity from the market tribunal SAT on Bharti Airtel's proposed mega deal with MTN, the Sunil Mittal company today said it is still in discussion with the South African firm.
Sunil Mittal-owned Bharti group on Friday announced it would buy 27.5 per cent stake of Telesystem International Wireless of Canada in Hexacom, a cellular telecom operator in Rajasthan.
In an interview at the GSMA conference in Barcelona on Tuesday, Mittal broke his silence on the scam and the very public spat between Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications: "My plea is that the industry shut their mouths; zip up and let the various investigative agencies do their job," he said.
Confirming the SOX compliance exercise, a senior Bharti group executive, however, denied that the company was considering a foreign listing.
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.
Sunil Mittal's plan to merge his Bharti Airtel - India's biggest mobile-phone operator -with South Africa's MTN, coupled with the company's 3G foray, is likely to put pressure on its balance sheet, as the estimated cash requirement would be Rs 40,475 crore (Rs 404.75 billion) in this fiscal.
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.
Bharti Group, which has bid for modernisation of the Delhi airport, would consider taking up similar jobs for other non-metro airports if it wins the bid, its chief Sunil Mittal said on Tuesday.
Spectrum auction on Thursday entered the 10th day of bidding and started off from Rs 61,091.83 crore (Rs 610.91 billion) in terms of value.
Corporate India tempered its victory celebrations for the supposedly business-friendly Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance's landslide electoral victory by highlighting the need for immediate steps to create jobs through inclusive economic growth.
Zain Telecom on Wednesday said it would earn $3.3 billion from sale of its African assets to Bharti Airtel for $10.7 billion even as the Indian operator said the deal is well-priced.
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.
State-owned telecom major BSNL has awarded a major chunk of its international traffic to UK and Europe to Sunil Mittal-owned Bharti, virtually eliminating incumbent carrier VSNL.\n
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.
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.
The Wall Street Journal quoting two people familiar with the situation said Bharti has contacted West Asian sovereign wealth funds for additional cash to back its MTN bid for a majority stake. Further, the paper quoted another person and said that Bharti has already negotiated about $12 billion in financing from a group of banks that includes Standard Chartered PLC, but the deal may require more resources.
The Panama Paper leaks were originally revealed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists on April 4, 2016, following which, the government had set up the MAG to probe the matter.
Sunil Mittal-promoted Bharti Enterprises, offering telecom services, on Wednesday picked up 4.99 per cent stake in private sector Bank of Punjab for a consideration of Rs 24.52 crore (Rs 245.2 million).
Indian mobile phone users will have to pay more if the service providers are charged for spectrum, which was earlier given free to the operators, chairman of the country's largest telecom company Bharti Airtel Sunil Mittal has said.
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
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.
Airtel, Vodafone-Idea and other telecom operators may have to pay the government a whopping Rs 1.42 lakh crore following the Supreme Court order last week that sent shock waves through an industry already grappling with billions of dollars in debt and an intense tariff war to retain customers.
Sunil Mittal promoted Bharti Group garnered the largest subscriber base of 37.50 lakh (3.75 million), followed by BSNL and Hutchison Group.\n
