Chennai, April 12, 2004

NRI sources confirmed that Bharti Televentures is very close to finalising the deal to buy out Aircel ranges from Rs 900 to Rs 1,300 crore. Aircel have a great interests in the Tamil Nadu and Chennai circles. Aircel has also been in talks with IDEA Cellular for the past few months but our sources confirmed that Bharti got a final deal for closing. If IDEA made a deal, the success of this deal would help it fulfil its dream of increasing its footprint across the country because it does not have a presence in the two circles

NRI, Mr. C Sivasankaran from California started Aircel and made it very popular in the Tamil Nadu and Chennai area. The foreign partner in AT&T is looking at selling its stake in the company and has mandated Deutsche Bank for the sale.