Airtel-Telenor merger approved by NCLT; Airtel to get ops in 7 circles

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Thursday approved the proposed merger of Telenor India with Bharti Airtel.

The bench approved the scheme with certain conditions.

Airtel and Telenor had signed the agreement for merger on February 2017 under which Airtel will acquire Telenor Indias running operations in seven circles Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, UP (East), UP (West) and Assam.

The proposed acquisition has already been cleared by Competition Commission of India (CCI), the market regulator Sebi and stock exchanges BSE and NSE, and it is awaiting telecom department's nod.

The deal will include transfer of all of Telenor Indias assets and customers and is aimed at augmenting Airtels overall customer base and network.

It will also enable Airtel to bolster its spectrum footprint in these seven circles, with the addition of 43.4 MHz spectrum in the 1800 MHz band.