Likely to seek FIPB approval to raise holding; deal could bring FDI of about $696 mn.
The dispute between Vodafone and the Ruia-owned Essar Group, its 33 per cent partners in Vodafone-Essar, over ownership of BPL Mobile deepened this week after the UK-based telecom major alleged that Essar had altered the share structure of the Mumbai service provider in violation of a 2006 agreement
'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.'
Vodafone's focus is to increase consumer data adoption along with Micromax's product expertise, it said in a statement.
Wooing overseas investors, government on Wednesday decided against challenging the Bombay High Court decision favouring Vodafone in the Rs 3,200 crore (Rs 32 billion) tax case and adopt a similar approach in transfer pricing litigations involving other MNCs like Shell.
The Bombay High Court on Thursday stayed a new income tax demand of Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) on Vodafone India Services in an alleged transfer-pricing case from 2010-11.
Vodafone chief executive Arun Sarin has arrived in the country to attend Hutch-Essar's board meeting slated to take place on Friday.
The move to sell the jewel in Vodafone's crown closes a heady expansionist chapter for one of Britain's most famous companies
The merged entity would lead with a revenue market share of about 37 per cent against Airtel's 31.2 per cent and Jio's 14.5 per cent
The petition was mentioned on Tuesday by Income Tax counsel Beni Chatterjee and Vodafone lawyer Fereshte Sethna before a bench headed by Chief Justice Mohit Shah.
Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the telecom major, informed Justice Manmohan that the company in its response to the high court's August 22 notice has said it is not acceding to jurisdiction of the Indian courts in the matter.
Vodafone, which is yet to announce the acquisition, has offered to partner Essar, on which the Indian conglomerate said, "We are at the moment evaluating all our options in the best interest of the Group."
Collapse of the mobile operator could translate into total loss of nearly Rs 44,000 crore for the AV Birla group.
INX Media, the company set up by Indrani Mukherjea, wife of ex-Star Group CEO Peter Mukherjea, has roped in three top advertisers -- Vodafone, Reliance Industries and Future Group -- for their Hindi entertainment channel 9X. Each of these advertisers are believed to be paying Rs 35-40 crore (Rs 350-400 million) for a three-year contract. The television broadcaster has formed Club INX, which will include corporates keen to advertise on the channel.
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.
Over the weekend, the Bombay high court quietly published a 160-page court order detailing its decision to dismiss a petition by Vodafone of the UK against the Indian tax department.
A battle between incumbent GSM and CDMA operators has broken out, with Marten Pieters, the managing director of Vodafone Essar, the country's second-largest telecom operator, lashing out at comments made by a competing operator, saying it was ridiculous to imply that incumbent GSM players like them were hoarding scarce spectrum.
Arun Sarin is the chief executive officer of Vodafone Group Plc, the United Kingdom-based global mobile operator.
day after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a Rs 1 lakh crore spending package, a top government source said the Centre has not closed its options for another stimulus package.
British giant Vodafone and Indian conglomerate Essar group reached an agreement on Thursday for jointly running India's fourth largest mobile firm -- Hutch-Essar, which would be rechristened Vodafone Essar.
While a group of officials believed a case against the two telecom companies was made out as they were only beneficiaries of the laid down policy, another team of officials involved in decision-making differed, official sources said on Monday.
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.
UK's Cairn Energy Plc has won an arbitration against the Indian government levying Rs 10,247 crore in retrospective taxes, the company said on Wednesday. The three-member tribunal, which also comprised a judge appointed by the Indian government, ruled that India's claim of Rs 10,247 crore in past taxes over a 2006-07 internal reorganisation of Cairn's India business was not a valid demand, sources said. The tribunal asked India to pay the funds withheld along with the interest to the Scottish oil explorer for seizing dividend, tax refund, and sale of shares to partly recover the dues.
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Faced with over Rs 11,200 crore (Rs 112 billion) tax liability, Vodafone India chief Analjit Singh on Thursday met Finance Minister P Chidambaram for the second time this week and expressed the hope that there will be clarity soon on the proposal to settle the dispute through conciliation.
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.
Sarin said Hutchison obviously had its own compulsions of not being able to continue in India.
Kumar Mangalam Birla will be the non-executive chairman and Balesh Sharma the new CEO of the merged entity, which will remain listed.
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.
Vodafone appointed to its board on Thursday a former group managing director at HTIL's parent company Hutchison Whampoa.
"We always prefer long-term regulatory policies as we have to plan our businesses for long-term," Arun Sarin, the outgoing CEO of UK-based Vodafone Group, one of the world's largest mobile operators, said here.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday indicated the government's intent to appeal against an arbitration panel asking India to return USD 1.4 billion to UK's Cairn Energy Plc, saying it is her "duty" to appeal in cases where the nation's sovereign authority to tax is questioned.
With the new entity coming in force, Bharti Airtel will lose the tag of India's biggest telecom service provider to the new entity.
The I-T department had said Vodafone India under-priced shares in a rights issue to its parent. The tax demand was for the two financial years ended March 2011.
UK oil explorer Cairn Energy is facing a tax demand of Rs 10,247 crore and Vodafone over acquisition of 67% stake in the mobile business owned by Hutchison Whampoa in 2007
RBI's exercise will take into account standards of governance, the viability of the payment bank (PB) business model, and changes, if any, if needed.
India offers good long-term investment opportunities.
The decision is likely to bring in at least Rs 5 lakh crore of fresh investments into the sector over five years by improving connectivity and competition
"If we are not getting anything then I think it is end of story for Vodafone Idea," Kumar Mangalam Birla said at the HT Leadership Summit when asked about the future of Vodafone Idea in absence of a government relief on payment of Rs 53,038 crore dues.
Troubled Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) has filed a review petition in the Supreme Court after the apex court recently dismissed its plea for rectification of the alleged errors in the calculation of adjusted gross revenues-related dues. In the petition, filed earlier this week, VIL has said it is "a travesty of justice" that the company is restrained from questioning the arithmetical errors/ omission which are going to cost it about Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 5,932 crore of principal plus interest, penalty and interest on penalty). VIL has said its contentions have been rejected by the order under review and added that this denial could result in the company going under and its about 27.3 crore subscribers being left "high and dry".
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