Norwegian telecom company Telenor is looking at a 74 per cent stake in the company it plans to launch in India with a new partner.
“Our plan is to start a new company with a new partner. We have already approached the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to have a 74 per cent stake in the new company,” said Sigve Brekke, managing director of Unitech Wireless, a joint venture between realty company Unitech and Telenor, which operates services under the brand name, Uninor. There were parties ready for collaboration, he said.
“We are looking at three things: Find a solution with current partners; tie-up with new partners; and formation of the company,” he said, adding the company could complete these processes by June 2, if the Supreme Court decided in favour of Telenor’s plea to go for 2G auction at the earliest. Telenor has filed a petition in the court, seeking completion of the 2G spectrum auction process by June 2, against the government’s timeline of at least 400 days for the allocation.
On February 2, the court had ordered the cancellation of 122 licences issued in January 2008 under the then telecom minister, A Raja, and directed the government to conduct the auction of vacated 2G spectrum in four months. Of the 122 licences, 22 were held by Uninor.
The joint venture partners have been fighting a legal battle over the control of Uninor. Unitech has already approached the Company Law Board seeking arbitration in the dispute.
Telenor initially invested Rs 6,100 crore in fresh equity in Uninor and the Indian telecom company had a plan to infuse Rs 15,500 crore through debt. However, after the 2G spectrum issue in October 2010, banks refused to lend money to various telecom players, including Uninor, and a plan for a rights issue of Rs 8,000 crore was opposed by Unitech, said Brekke. He said Telenor then went to raise Rs 8,000 crore through short-term foreign borrowing for Uninor.
Uninor added 2.34 million users in February and had 41.14 million users at the end of the month.
