Idea Cellular, the country’s third-largest operator by subscribers, has filed an application before National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Ahmedabad Bench, seeking approval for its merger with Vodafone India and and Vodafone Mobile Services.
The move comes after the Aditya Birla Group company got approvals from Competition Commission of India on July 24, 2017 and market regulator SEBI on August 4, 2017. Idea Cellular has filed an application with NCLT on Monday, it said in a statement.
In March, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular announced plans to merge the companies creating a telecom behemoth with about 400 million customers, 35 per cent customer market share and 41 per cent revenue market share.
At present, Vodafone India is the country’s second largest operator by users and Idea Cellular the third largest operator. Vodafone India will own 45.1 per cent stake in the merged entity after transferring about 4.9 per cent to the promoters of Idea and their affiliates for Rs 3,874 crore in cash. Promoters of Idea will hold 26 per cent stake in the company and the remaining will be held by the public.
The proposed merger is expected to completed by 2018.