While Airtel may be pushed to to No 3, Jio will find it mighty difficult to beat the new entity.
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.
A landmark tax case between Vodafone of the UK and the Indian government that is set to determine the future climate for mergers and acquisitions in the country began on Monday.
Under the 2007 agreement between Vodafone and Essar, the latter has a put option of divesting its stake in the telecom venture.
This merger, Bhupesh Bhandari believes, will be watched keenly by management gurus the world over.
The latest telecom war kicked off after some pictures surfaced, showing Airtel banners among agitating farmers. According to the Jio camp, it was a giveaway that farmers were being enticed to port their phone numbers.
A court ruled in favour of Vodafone on Friday in a long-running dispute with the Indian taxman, a boost for the British telecom group whose tax battles have been seen as emblematic of the troubles facing foreign investors in India.
Essar wants reverse merger of Essar Telecom Holdings Ltd into its listed group firm, India Securities Ltd.
A large team led by Kumar Mangalam Birla has taken charge of the integration process.
Global telecom major Vodafone's minority partner in India, Analjit Singh, may take over as the chairman of the group's Indian operations, after Essar group exits the venture.
Measures reportedly being mulled by the government to ease telecom industry's stress and fundraising may give Vodafone Idea the much-needed breather, but structural issue undermining the sector can be fixed only with "sizable" tariff hike for 4G prepaid customers, according to a note by Edelweiss. It further observed that as Voda Idea's large liabilities are falling due, and given the impending launch of JioPhone Next (whose rollout timeline has now been pushed to before Diwali), "the sooner the government measures as well as tariff hikes are rolled out, the better it is". It is pertinent to mention here that the telecom sector has been keenly watching out for the relief package, which could include redefinition of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) to exclude non-telecom items, cut in levies such as Spectrum Usage Charges and easier terms and conditions for surrendering radiowaves to the government.
The onus of the tax dues of Rs 22,100 crore on Vodafone India's British parent could also fall on the merged entity.
The clarification comes a day after Vodafone signed a shareholders' agreement with the Essar group.
According to reports, Vodafone NZ had offered all its employees, other than call centre and retail staffers, voluntary severance package
Arun Sarin, who recently retired as the Vodafone group CEO, is being considered for the post of chief executive of internet major Yahoo! Inc, the Wall Street Journal says.
On January 20, the court allowed Vodafone's appeal and had quashed the Bombay High Court verdict which had upheld the decision to levy tax on the overseas deal.
With Airtel and RCom already having launched their special offers for post-paid customers, and RJio around the corner, Vodafone makes its move with Red.
Bombay High Court had earlier dismissed a petition filed by Vodafone and ruled that the tax office had jurisdiction to tax its 2007 deal.
Ruias-led Essar Group on Friday launched a scathing attack on Vodafone saying that the British company is trying to gain 100 per cent control of the telecom JV Vodafone-Essar at an "artificially depressed value".
Granted 6-month relief, subject to interim payments and guarantee, on Rs 3,700-cr demand for alleged transfer pricing in FY09.
Vodafone said on Wednesday it has completed the acquisition of controlling stake in Hutchisson-Essar Ltd while paying a less amount at $10.9 billion as against $11.8 billion announced earlier.
Contrary to reports that world's largest mobile phone company Vodafone is planning to bid for South Africa's MTN, the UK-based firm has said it is not in the race to acquire the African mobile major. "Vodafone has ruled itself out of the running to acquire South African mobile phone group MTN, paving the way for Bharti Airtel of India to take a majority stake in the company."
UK telecom giant Vodafone has alleged that its Indian joint venture partner, the Essar group, may be involved in violation of insider-trading regulations. The dispute between the two came into the open after Essar proposed a reverse merger of group company Essar Telecom Holdings (ETHPL) into listed entity Indian Securities (ISL).
Vodafone Idea and Airtel have made provisions for their liabilities arising from the Supreme Court order in their latest September quarter results.
In the case, which will begin on Tuesday and last for five days, Indian tax authorities will argue that Vodafone, the UK-based mobile phone group headed by Arun Sarin, is liable for an estimated $2bn in taxes on its $11bn acquisition of local operator, Hutchison Essar, last year.
The Ruias and other promoters own a 99.99 per cent stake through various companies in BPL Mobile Communications. They have already toned it down to 82.4 per cent, sources close to the development said. Now, the group is looking at further bringing it down to less than 70 per cent. This will make BPL Mobile Communications a shell company and diminish its values making its shares 'worthless,' says Vodafone.
Most brokerages are betting that the new government will shift to a policy focussing on boosting rural incomes and consumption since that has clearly been a pain point.
Ambani to up ante by $3 bn on Ruia's hint at larger premium.
Tops the group in mobile voice usage volumes.
The group firms reported combined losses of Rs 6,134 crore in FY19 against a net profit of Rs 5,414 crore a year ago. Excluding Vodafone Idea, the group reported a net profit of Rs 8,470 crore, down from a profit of Rs 9,582 crore a year ago.
The question mark over Vodafone Idea's survival is gone after the government's telecom package, managing director and chief executive officer Ravinder Takkar said in an interaction recently. The extended moratorium for spectrum payments and adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues has indeed ensured that Vodafone Idea survives, at least for the time being, but questions remain. Answers to those questions may determine the future of Vodafone Idea and its power to stay in a difficult telecom market in the coming years.
Aditya Birla group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla has offered to hand over his stake in debt-laden Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) to the government or any other entity that the government may consider worthy to keep the company operational. The billionaire businessman made the offer in June in a letter to Cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba. According to official data, VIL had an adjusted gross revenue (AGR) liability of Rs 58,254 crore out of which the company has paid Rs 7,854.37 crore and Rs 50,399.63 crore is outstanding.
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).
The world's largest mobile operator by revenue, Vodafone, which operates in India with a joint venture with Essar Group, on Monday said it will invest more in India as it sees more opportunities in the country.
From its lows this month, the stock of Bharti Airtel is up 14 per cent. The gains for the telco have come on the back of expectations that market share consolidation, tariff hike and lower capex should boost margins and profits. While the company is a key player in the Indian market, it also has a leadership position in major markets of Africa.
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".
Last week, Essar had decided to prepay $900 million of this debt to foreign lenders.
'We showcased about 20 use cases in 5G trials in Pune and Gandhinagar and some of them were interesting and innovative.' 'However, which ones will take off and which ones would not be relevant, we don't know yet.'
Bharti Airtel will start talks for "disengagement" from its partner Vodafone once the UK company decides on its future course of action in India.
UK telecom giant Vodafone has offloaded its 5.6 per cent direct stake in India's mobile leader Bharti Airtel to promoter Sunil Mittal's group for $1.6 billion, coinciding its acquisition of controlling stake in Hutch-Essar.
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