HC nod for merger of Airtel's Bangladesh ops with Robi Axiata

Bharti Airtel today said it has received the approval of Bangladesh High Court for merger of its Bangladesh operations into Robi Axiata Ltd.
Earlier this year, Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel and Malaysia-based Axiata Group inked a pact to merge their respective operations in Bangladesh -- Airtel Bangladesh and Robi Axiata -- to create the second largest telco in that country.
Axiata will hold 68.3 per cent controlling stake in the combined entity, Bharti Airtel 25 per cent and the remaining 6.7 per cent will be with Japan-based NTT DoCoMo, an existing shareholder.
In a BSE filing today, Bharti Airtel said that spectrums, assigned to both the companies prior to the proposed amalgamation, will continue to be used by the merged entity for the time period stipulated in the licence.

The filing further said that the difference between the price paid by Robi for spectrum in 2011 and that paid by Airtel in 2005 of USD 65 million would be payable by the merged entity to Bangladesh telecom regulator - BTRC.
"BTRC shall determine on the mechanism for payment in installments in line with the 2G spectrum payment that was paid by Robi Axiata," it said.

It said that in event that Robi Axiata decides to return any spectrum to BTRC, the value of the returned spectrum has been fixed at about USD 1.3 million per Mhz per year.
BTRC in consultation with Robi Axiata shall ultimately decide the issue of return of spectrum after considering the interference, quality of service and the necessity of the spectrum for providing the service.

The fees in relation to the proposed merger has been fixed at USD 12.8 million payable to BTRC, which shall determine the mechanism of payment of these fees including the possibility of installment payment," it said.