Idea Cellular buys 40.8% stake in Spice

Idea and Spice will also swap shares in which shareholders of Spice will get 49 shares of Idea for every 100 shares held in Spice.

Idea Cellular will also make a payment of Rs 544 crore to the Spice Group as non compete fee.

With this acquisition , Idea cellular will gain entry in the wireless markets of Punjab and Karnataka, which account for 11 per cent of India's total wireless subscribers.

This would help Idea to consolidate it position with its all-India subscriber market share  increasing from 9.5 per cent to 11.1 per cent.