Bharti Bags Five Circles, Ril Draws A Blank In 14

Bharti has pulled a coup by bagging five more circles at the end of the second round of bidding for the fourth cellular operators berth.

Reliance is out of the race from 14 of the 15 circles. While it has bid lower than the floor price in 13 circles, the departmment of telecom has declared it ineligible for Delhi.

Bharti has emerged the highest bidder in seven circles out of the eleven circles it bid for. Of this Bharti has ended up as the only qualifier in five circles of Mumbai, Haryana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh (west)as the other bidders withdrew from the race by quoting bid amounts below the floor price set by the highest bidder in these circles in the first round.

 

Bharti in the first round itself bagged Madhya Pradesh circle on account of being the only bidder here.

The company will have to shell out a total of Rs 400 crore for bagging the licences for all these six circles.

The big surprise of the day was Reliance which is out of the race in 14 of the 15 circles it bid for.

The company had initially shown a lot of interest in the bidding process by submitting 30 bids under two different companies.

However, in the first round itself Reliance had indicated its intentions by keeping its bid amounts hovering around the Rs 50 crore mark vena whereas others like Bharti and Essar-Hutchison had bid in excess of Rs 100 crore The company, which was the highest bidder for Delhi in the first round, has been declared ineligible for Delhi.

Kolkata is the only circle which is certain to be bagged by Reliance for Rs 78 crore owing to Bharti's decision to opt out of the race for the circle post acquisition of Spice Cell.

Essar Hutchison, which was the highest bidder in four circles in the first round, has kept its lead. The company is certain to bag Andhra Pradesh for Rs 103 crore as it is the only bidder to qualify for the third round.

In Chennai and Karnataka, Batata with a bid amount of Rs 117.50 crore and Rs 150 crore respectively is giving a tough fight to Essar-Hutchison which has quoted Rs 126.80 crore and Rs 168 crore for the circles in the second round.

Essar Hutchison will also have to watch over its shoulders in Maharashtra where Bharti has bid Rs 105 crore as compared to Rs 112.80 crore by Essar.

The BPL Birla AT&T-Tata combine, which had bid for three circles, has merged as the highest bidder in Delhi and is closely following Essar Hutchison in the other two.

Of the eight bids put in by Escorts, bids for Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have been disqualified owing to bid amounts being lower than the floor price.

The company has emerged as the highest bidder in four of the circles and has already bagged Himachal Pradesh for Rs 1 crore.

There is also not much of a change in the highest bid amount or the highest bidder in most of the circles as compared to the first round except for Delhi, Kolkata, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh (east) where Batata, Reliance, Escorts have overtaken Reliance, Bharti, Indmobile and Bharti respectively.

The biggest change is in the Delhi circle where the highest bid amount of Rs 90 crore put in by Reliance in the first round was taken up to Rs 170.60 crore by Batata in the second round.

After the second round the government is set to get at least Rs 1486 crore as entry fee which is about Rs 200 crore more than the first round.