Telecom JV Datacom heads for a courtroom battle

Even before its take off, telecom joint venture Datacom is heading for a courtroom battle, with HFCL's Mahendra Nahata alleging that his alliance partner V N Dhoot of Videocon is reneging on commitment and has threatened to take legal recourse.     

Nahata, whose firm was given the telecom licence before he decided to sell majority stake to Videocon, hit out at Dhoot saying that the joint venture was being run as a proprietorial firm without he getting the due weightage as a partner.     

"In the first place, we are shocked at the manner in which the original commitments are not being met and he (Dhoot) is trying to run the company as a sole proprietorship firm without any regard to principles of corporate governance," Nahata said.     

While Dhoot could not be contacted for his comments, Datacom CEO Ravi Sharma declined to comment, saying, "This was an issue between two shareholders."     

According to sources, Nahata has asked for about Rs 2,100 crore to sell his 36 per cent stake in Datacom and Rs 450-500 crore compensation for not merging HFCL Infotel's telecom operations in Punjab with Datacom as per original agreement.     

Both parties held talks to reach at an amicable solution but failed, with sources saying that Nahata has rejected the proposal in which Videocon is understood to have offered $324 million and that too over a period of 18 months.     

Datacom has a pan-India license to offer mobile services and the company was originally promoted by Mahendra Nahata who had sold 64 per cent stake to Videocon promoters due to financial constraints and on a condition that Nahata would get 36 per cent equity free.