Indian telecom biz sees M&A deals worth $9 bn

The fast growing Indian telecom industry has seen mergers and acquisitions valued at over $9 billion this fiscal, unfazed by the global slowdown that resulted in lesser number of global M&A deals, an industry survey said today.

In fact, consolidation in telecom industry accounted for one-third of the total M&As in the country. The largest of around 20 deals this year was the buyout of 26 per cent stake in Tata Teleservices by Japanese major NTT DoCoMo Inc, an Assocham EcoPulse study said.

"The $2.7-billion deal enabled the Japanese giant's entry into the world's fastest growing telecom market, which has over three times the number of subscribers in Japan," the study said.

In another deal, Dubai-based Emirates Telecommunications Corp (Etisalat) bought out 45 per cent stake in Swan Telecom for cash up to $900 million.

Idea Cellular acquiring 40.8 per cent stake in Spice Communications for $679 million was among the major domestic deals in the last eight months of this fiscal.

The study revealed that most of the telecom deals were inbound with foreign companies infused about $8.06 billion. The valuations of deals between domestic players, however, remained relatively less.