Mumbai, March 8: Temasek Holdings, the investment arm of the Singapore government, today picked up a 9.9 per cent stake in Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) for $300 million, ending weeks of speculation in the telecom industry.

TTSL is an unlisted company and offers CDMA services in 20 telecom circles.

The deal comes only days after Analjit Singh of Max India acquired an effective economic interest of 8.33 per cent in another telecom major Hutchison Essar from Kotak Mahindra Bank for Rs 1,019 crore.

The deal puts Hutchison Essar’s valuation at $6 billion today.

This, however, is not the end of deals on telecom street.

TTSL itself is planning to offload another 9 per cent of its equity to a couple of strategic investors with whom negotiations are currently underway.

One of the investors is believed to be C. Sivasankaran of Aircel, who is tipped to pick up close to 7 per cent in the company.

Temasek’s payment of $300 million for the 9.9 per cent puts the total valuation of TTSL at $3 billion.

The investment firm could have picked up more had it not been for the current regulations which bars any single company from holding more than 10 per cent or more either directly or indirectly or through associates in more than one licensee company in the same service area or circle.

SingTel, which is an arm of Temasek, has a 30 per cent stake in Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd.

TTSL’s chief executive Darryl Green told The Telegraph, “Most of the investment will go towards enhancing our network and in improving infrastructure. We are planning to lay out the 3G network next year. This investment will help us achieve the goal of reaching out to more subscribers.”

Manish Kejriwal, managing director of Temasek Holdings, said, “We are excited about India’s growth prospects and the telecom industry provides an attractive opportunity to participate in this fast growing market. As a shareholder of Tata Teleservices, we have the opportunity to invest in a company that is poised to become a significant national player.”

Earlier, reports had suggested that TTSL was in talks with SK Telecom to offload a 26 per cent stake.