Price wars just got bigger: Idea-Vodafone merger to create a new mkt leader

Vodafone will own 45.1% of the merged entity after it transfers 4.9% to Idea promoters

Britain's Vodafone Group will merge its Indian subsidiary with local rival Idea Cellular within two years, Idea said on Monday, creating a new market leader better able to contest a brutal new price war.

Vodafone will own 45.1 percent of the merged entity, after it transfers about 4.9 percent to promoters of Idea and/or their affiliates for 38.74 billion rupees ($592.15 million) in cash, Idea said.

The combined Vodafone-Idea group would India's largest telecom operation with almost 400 million customers, or 35 percent market share.

The merger comes after India's mobile industry was thrown into turmoil with the launch last year of Reliance Jio Infocomm, the new 4G mobile broadband network