IMC 2017: Airtel buyout of Telenor on track to be completed by Feb 2018

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel’s merger with the Indian arm of Norway’s Telenor is on track and expected to be concluded by February 2018, a top Telenor India executive said on the sidelines of India Mobile Congress Wednesday.

“The merger with Airtel is expected to be concluded within the original timeline of a year from February 2017 when it was announced,” the Telenor executive said.

The Airtel-Telenor merger has already been approved by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), the Competition Commission of India (CCI), the Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the BSE and NSE.

Bharti Airtel had inked an agreement with Telenor South Asia Investments Pte back in February to buy Telenor India’s operations in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, UP (East), UP (West) and Assam. These seven circles contribute about 35% to Airtel’s total revenue. Airtel will also take on some of the Nordic telco’s local liabilities.

The acquisition is slated to bolster Airtel’s 4G spectrum holdings and revenue market share, reinforcing its hand in the battle against Reliance Jio Infocomm. Airtel will pocket 43.4 units of 4G spectrum in the 1800 MHz band once the Telenor deal is concluded.

Airtel will also take over Telenor India’s outstanding spectrum payments of some Rs 1,650 crore and other operational contracts, including tower leases with Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers, besides employees and 44 million customers.

Airtel had said that the Telenor circles represent a high population concentration and therefore offer a high potential for growth.

Telenor had a rough ride ever since it rolled out operations in late 2009 in partnership with real estate company Unitech under the Uninor brand. Although it won licences to offer nationwide services, all of them were cancelled in the judgment on the 2G scam five years ago.

The company fell out with its partner, which soon had troubles of its own, but decided to persevere in the fiercely competitive India market, taking sole ownership of its local unit in 2014, after the rules were changed in 2013 to allow this.

Having bought back spectrum in separate auctions in the seven circles, the rechristened Telenor India played the price card, offering services at almost half that of its bigger rivals to gain subscribers.

But with Jio, it struggled to compete as all operators slashed prices and it started losing subscribers, market share and revenue. The company didn't participate in the spectrum auctions last October, which indicated its India days were numbered.