Still looking to exit Neotel business: Tata Comm MD

Tata Communications is still exploring options to exit from its South African telecom arm Neotel even as its deal with Vodacom for selling the company fell through.
"We will look at options we have. Direction is still to exit Neotel business. While financials have improved, it is very domestic business and we want to look at cross border business and not do anything domestic except in India," Tata Communications Managing Director and Group CEO Vinod Kumar told reporters here.
The deal between Tata Communications and Vodafone's South
African arm Vodacom failed after 21 months of talks "due to regulatory complexities in concluding the transaction as well as certain conditions not being fulfilled".

The deal was originally signed in May 2014 wherein Vodacom
had reached an agreement to buy Neotel, controlled by Tata Communications, for 7 billion rand (about Rs 3,200 crore).

In dollar terms, the value of transaction at that time was
around USD 676 million.
Tata Communications owns over 68 per cent stake in South
Africa's largest fixed line telephone service provider Neotel.
Kumar said that company's data business is now driving growth and Tata Communications will continue investing in it.
The revenue of Tata Communications from voice solutions
declined by about 5 per cent to Rs 2,009.54 crore from Rs 2,114.14 crore while that of data and managed services segment increased 16.7 per cent to Rs 2,723.3 crore from Rs 2,332.67 crore during the October-December quarter.

The company is also in discussion to divest its stake from
data center business which it expects to close in next financial year.
The Tata Communications global network includes infrastructure includes one of the largest submarine cable networks and a Tier-1 IP network with connectivity to more than 240 countries and territories, as well as nearly 1 million square feet of data centre space worldwide.
The company provides services to telecom operators in various countries by connecting their local network with global telecom network.