Vodafone,
UK agrees to acquire control of Hutch Essar in India
New Delhi, Feb. 11, 2007
Santosh Kumari
Vodafone Group headed NRI, Arun Sarin, has announced
that it has agreed to acquire control of Hutch Essar in India.
There will be a live webcast of an analyst and investor meeting
being held on Monday 12 February 2007
It has confirmrd that Vodafone agreed to buy a 67 pct interest
in Hutchison Essar Ltd for 11.1 bln usd plus 2.0 bln in debt,
valuing the company at 18.8 bln usd. It is also said that it will
acquire the stake through its subsidiary Vodafone International
Holdings BC, and finance the deal through debt and existing cash
reserves.
Vodafone will also make an offer to buy out Essar Group's 33
pct stake in Hutchison Essar at the equivalent price per share.
The company said it has also signed a memorandum of understanding
with Bharti Airtel Ltd on infrastructure sharing, and that it
has granted an option to a Bharti group company to buy its 5.6
pct interest in Bharti for 1.6 bln usd.
Vodafone is the largest mobile telecommunications network
company in the world, with equity interests in 27 countries
and Partner Networks in a further 33 countries. At 31 December
2006, Vodafone had approximately 198.6 million proportionate customers
worldwide.
The name Vodafone comes from Voice data fone, chosen by the
company to "reflect the provision of voice and data services
over mobile phones. Today, Vodafone had 200 million proportionate
customers in 27 markets across 5 continents.
On 30 May 2006, the company announced a loss before tax of £14.9
billion for 2005, the biggest loss in British corporate history.
The loss for the year from continuing operations was £17.2
billion and the bottom line loss for the financial year was £21.8
billion. The company was pushed into loss by impairment charges
of £23.5 billion, which related to the acquisition of Mannesmann
several years earlier, and losses of £4.6 billion in relation
to its discontinued business in Japan.
Vodafone is understood to have emerged as the winner for majority
stake in India's fourth largest mobile player Hutch-Essar, pipping
Anil Ambani group's Reliance Communications, Essar and Hinduja
Group.Vodafone’s winning bid stood at $19.3 bn
