India’s Bharti Airtel is closer to completing its acquisition of Telenor’s Indian operations, after securing approval for the proposed merger from the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
In a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), Airtel said CCI signed off on the proposed merger on Monday.
The announcement comes hot on the heels of Airtel also receiving approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), BSE Limited and the National Stock Exchange of India Limited. Airtel and Telenor have also fild a joint application with the New Delhi Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal.
Airtel arranged in February to acquire Telenor India’s existing operations in seven high-population telecoms circles. The acquisition will include Telenor’s all assets and 44 million customers in the circles, as well as an additional 4.3.4MHz of spectrum in the valuable 1800-MHz band.
Airtel has also reportedly agreed to take on Telenor India’s outstanding spectrum payments, amounting to around 16.5 billion rupees ($256.1 million) , as well as other financial commitments by way of payment.
India’s telecoms sector is going through a wave of consolidation triggered by the price war resulting from the entry into the market of Reliance Jio Infocomm.
Reliance Communications recently announced it has been granted a seven month reprieve to its debt repayment obligations while it completes a planned merger with Aircel, and Vodafone India and Idea Cellular are pursuing a merger that will create India’s largest mobile operator by subscribers.
By Baishakhi Dutta
