Tata Tele expects profit in nine months

TTSL, which started its operations in January 2005, has been a late entrant and has been lagging behind its rivals such as Bharti Airtel, which started services some 13 to 14 years ago.

The company, which offers its services on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks, also lags behind billionaire Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Communications, which started operations over a year ahead of TTSL on the same network platform.

"In the telecommunication business, it takes certain time to break even," said Kishor Chaukar, the managing director of Tata Industries, in an interview to Business Standard. He said the company aims to break even in the next nine to fifteen months when the listing plan would be considered.

The company, which has over 25 million subscribers currently, plans to offer service on the rival GSM network platform, which is more popular. The share sale will help Tata Teleservices expand its telecommunication services, including offering GSM-based mobile telephony.

The sale will also bring Tata Teleservices closer to consolidate all its telecommunication businesses under a single company. "Eventually, the logic is in merging the three entities," said Chaukar, who is also a member of Group Corporate Centre, the decision making body of the Tata Group.

The group owns 50.11 per cent stake in the country's largest long distance telephony company, Tata Communications (erstwhile Videsh Sanchar Nigam) and also runs its wireless services in Maharashtra and Goa under a separate company, Tata Teleservices Maharashtra. Both these companies are separately listed on the stock exchanges.

The Union government owns a 26.12 per cent stake in Tata Communications and it is in dispute with the Tata group on the ownership of 773 acres of land that Tata Communications owns and whose value runs into hundreds of crores of rupees.

India is the fastest growing wireless market in the world, with over eight million subscribers being added every month.