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.
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.
Responding to charges of cartelisation against the industry, newly-elected CII president K V Kamath on Thursday said corporates must ask themselves whether their actions in a demand-driven market was causing distress to others.
Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and managing director of Bharti Tele-Ventures, sold 3,13,005 shares on March 9 and 24,36,995 shares on March 10 of his holding in the company.
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.
Confirming the SOX compliance exercise, a senior Bharti group executive, however, denied that the company was considering a foreign listing.
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-backed OneWeb and New Space India Limited, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation, have entered into an agreement that will help ensure OneWeb completes its satellite launch programme. The first launch with New Space India is expected in 2022 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. The launches will add to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications firm OneWeb's total in-orbit constellation of 428 satellites -- 66 per cent of the planned total fleet -- to build a global network that will deliver high-speed, low-latency connectivity.
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.
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 said net sales rose 7.9 per cent
GSM operators lobby COAI has already challenged the norms announced by Department of Telecom on October 19, which include allowing dual technology for mobile services and enhanced subscriber-linked criteria for spectrum allocation. In view of protests by GSM operators, the Centre had asked Telecom Engineering Centre, the technical wing of DoT, to study the norms as suggested by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
Further stimulus measures are expected in the upcoming Budget where the focus is likely to be on reforms, including some structural measures such as reducing red tape and boosting foreign direct investment. The meeting with industrialists is in the series of discussions that Modi has had during the last couple of weeks to seek suggestions to revive growth.
Oxford University has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Confederation of Indian Industry to set up India Business Centre.
During the two-day visit, the delegation headed by CII President Sunil Bharti Mittal is scheduled to meet key people such as UK Secretary of State for Health and Environment and interact with industry captains.
Former Indian ambassador to the US Naresh Chandra, noted litterateur Raja Rao (posthumous) and scientist S E Chandy George and civil servant V Krishnamurthy were also selected for Padma Vibhushan.
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.
Telecom powerhouse Bharti Airtel's boss Sunil Mittal donated $1 million (Rs 4 crore) on Wednesday for education of underprivileged children in villages.
Sunil Mittal, chairman & group managing director of the Bharti group, is Business Standard's CEO of the Year for 2005-06.
Airtel has allocated 199,870,006 new equity shares at price of Rs 340 each share, representing 5 per cent equity stake in the company to QFE.
Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal on Thursday said he had reached out to Vodafone's Nick Read after bold telecom reforms were announced by the government and will also speak to RIL's Mukesh Ambani, as the telecom czar vowed to take the lead in bringing the industry together to unleash India's telecom dream. Mittal exhorted the industry to collaborate in areas such as infrastructure sharing to reduce costs but vehemently ruled out possibility of any cartelisation among players. Amid reports of its potential tie-ups with handset makers to counter Jio's upcoming ultra low-cost smartphone, Mittal said Airtel is in a state of "readiness" on an affordable smartphone "should a need arise".
The approved package for Mittal includes a total fixed pay (inclusive of salary, allowances and retirement benefits) of up to Rs 20 crore (Rs 200 million) per annum, variable pay (performance-linked incentives) of up to 200 per cent of the annual fixed pay in a financial year, and also perquisites worth up to 50 per cent of the fixed pay, taking the total package to an amount not exceeding Rs 70 crore (Rs 700 million).
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, on October 15, gave its recommendation on spectrum auction for premium 900 Mhz band and 1800 Mhz band that are presently being used for 2G GSM mobile services by Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications.
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.
The Confederation of Indian Industry expects an upswing in the Indo-UK bilateral relations under new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
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.
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
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).
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.
Airtel has pitched for a hike in mobile and data tariffs.
Earlier this week Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao had said, 'one day we will discuss (Vodafone and Bharti Group) what to do with the stake. To have a discussion on any issue we need to have both the partners.' In 2005, Vodafone had bought a 10 per cent stake in Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd (BTVL) for Rs 6,700 crore (Rs 67 billion).
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 government must also look at rationalising the levies on the sector and close long standing legal disputes that are a big drag on performance of operators, he said.
Telecom player Bharti on Thursday said it would pass on the full benefits of the cut in Access Deficit Charge to its subscribers from February 1, when the new regime comes into effect.
