Shareholders, creditors meeting on Oct 12 to seek nod for Voda-Idea merger

Meeting is being held for purpose of considering and approving with or without modification

Idea Cellular will hold a meeting of shareholders and creditors on October 12 to seek their approval for the amalgamation of Vodafone India's business with itself.

The meeting of equity shareholders, secured creditors and unsecured creditors will be held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. It is being convened following directions of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) bench at Ahmedabad, Idea Cellular said in a regulatory filing.

The meeting is being held "...For the purpose of considering and if thought fit, approving with or without modification, the arrangement embodied in the composite scheme of amalgamation and arrangement among Vodafone Mobile Service Limited and Vodafone India Limited and Idea Cellular Limited," it said.

The company will start seeking shareholder's nod through postal ballot and e-voting from September 12 and close the process on October 11.

Idea had approached NCLT on August 8 after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and exchanges gave their conditional nod to the proposed USD 23-billion merger deal that would create the country's largest telecom operator.

The scheme, if approved at the meeting October 12, will be subject to the subsequent approval of NCLT.

The combined entity is expected to create a mobile services juggernaut with nearly 400 million users and 35 per cent market share in terms of customers, potentially toppling Bharti Airtel from its current pole position.

The deal gives Vodafone India an implied enterprise value of Rs 82,800 crore and Idea Rs 72,200 crore.

Post the transaction, the British firm will own 45.1 per cent stake in the merged entity while the Aditya Birla Group, Idea's parent, will own 26 per cent after paying Rs 3,874 crore in cash for a 4.9 per cent stake.

The remaining 28.9 per cent stake will be held by other shareholders.

NCLT has appointed Justice M S Shah, former Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court and in his absence Arun Thiagarajan, an independent director of the applicant company, to be the chairman of the said meeting.