Bharti Tele-Ventures has acquired the remaining 44 per cent stake in Bharti Cellular from British Telecom for Rs 803.3 crore. With this acquisition, Bharti Cellular has now become a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti Tele-Ventures.

Earlier, British Telecom transferred its 39.78 per cent equity interest in Bharti BT Internet to Bharti Telespatial for Rs 34 crore and its 49 per cent equity interest in Bharti BT to Bharti Telespatial for Rs 31.6 crore, giving Bharti Telespatial a 100 per cent equity interest in each company.

The IPO is the culmination of a spate of acquisitions by Bharti during the year primarily for the purpose of converting several of its joint ventures into wholly owned subsidiaries. The company also entered into licence agreements to establish networks and provide cellular services in eight additional circles comprising the metropolitan region of Mumbai and the circles of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (West), and Haryana through Bharti Cellular all involving huge license fees.

Last month, Bharti acquired the remaining 10 per cent stake in Bharti Telesonic from SingTel for Rs 27.4 crore thereby making Bharti Telesonic a 100 per cent subsidiary. This transaction resulted in goodwill of Rs 3.6 crore.

During the year, Bharti entered into agreements with Bellsouth and Millicom to acquire an additional 49 per cent equity in Bharti Mobinet for Rs 99.9 crore each.

This was preceded by acquisition of the BK Modi-promoted Spice Cell Ltd, cellular service provider in Kolkata, by Bharti Mobitel for Rs 313 crore resulting in goodwill transaction of Rs 345 crore.

In May 2001, Bharti Tele-Ventures acquired 85 per cent holding in Bharti Telespatial from Bharti Telecom through an equity issue and cash transaction, which would be consolidated on 'uniting of interest' method.

The remaining 15 per cent equity was acquired from a minority shareholder for Rs 31.6 crore, which resulted in goodwill of Rs 18.4 crore. For the financial year 2002, this acquisition will be consolidated under the uniting of interest method, since Bharti Telespatial and Bharti Tele-Ventures are under the common control of Bharti Telecom, which is the promoter of Bharti Tele-Ventures as well.