Friday, December 26, 2008

Indian Telecom''s M&As At Despite Downturn: Assocham - Dec 26, 2008

New Delhi: The Indian telecom industry this fiscal has seen mergers and acquisitions, which is valued at over $9 billion, unfazed by the global slowdown, an industry survey said on Dec 24. In the country, the consolidation in telecom accounted for one-third of the total M&As. An Assocham EcoPulse study said, the largest of around 20 deals this year was Japanese major NTT DoCoMo''s purchase of a 26 per cent stake in Tata Teleservices.

The $2.7 billion deal "enabled the Japanese giant''s entry into the world''s fastest-growing telecom market, which has over three times the number of subscribers in Japan," the study said. Besides this, in another deal, Dubai-based Emirates Telecommunications Corp (Etisalat) bought a 45 per cent stake in Swan Telecom for $900 million in cash. In the last eight months this fiscal, the Idea Cellular acquiring a 40.8 per cent stake for $679 million in Spice Communications was among the major domestic deals. The study says of the $9 billion M&A deals, foreign companies infused $8.06 billion.

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