 |
| Tata: Truce |
Hyderabad, April 8 (PTI): The imbroglio over Idea Cellular, the Tata-Birla joint venture, appears to have been solved, with Tata group chairman Ratan Tata today upholding the right of their partner in buying them out.
“They have a right to buy our stake in Idea and are willing to match the offer we got from Maxis,” he said here amid reports that the Birlas may buy out the Tatas for an estimated Rs 4,600-4,800 crore to end a bitter battle between India’s two oldest corporate houses that became public two months ago.
The Birlas’ price offer may have come in response to an offer from Malaysian telecom company Maxis, which recently bought Aircel Telecom from Sivasankaran.
There was speculation that the Tatas may consider Maxis offer in case the Birlas failed to match the Malaysian company's offer in 45 days.
A final decision and subsequent agreement between the two sides is yet to be formalised for deal under which the Tatas would sell about 110 crore shares (equivalent to over 48 per cent equity).
Had the Birlas failed to match the offer, Maxis Telecom would have automatically bought Tata’s stake in Idea, which offers mobile services in several telecom circles in the country, including Delhi.
As of now there are four private telecom service providers namely Bharti, Hutch, Reliance Infocomm and Tata Telecom having footprint in 17 or more circles.
The fight between the two groups became public when the Birlas wrote to the government seeking the ouster of the Tatas from the joint venture on the grounds that the latter had violated the telecom licensing conditions.
The other side retaliated by serving a termination notice and declaring that they would buy out their partner.
The department of telecom is yet to take a position on the issue raised by the Birlas, even as the two sides later decided to keep off the media on the subject.
Sources said an internal committee comprising top honchos of the Tata group deliberated on the issue earlier this week and then submitted a note to Rata Tata two days ago.
