Norway’s Telenor Group on Friday said it plans to invest an additional ₹780 crore to raise its ownership in Indian subsidiary Uninor to 100 per cent.
Telenor currently owns a 74 per cent stake in Uninor and the balance is held by Lakshdeep Investments, a company owned by Sun Pharmaceutical’s Executive Director Sudhir Valia.
“Continuing its long-term commitment to India, Telenor Group has filed to take complete ownership of its Indian business unit.
An application has been filed with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board of the Government of India, seeking approval for an additional investment of ₹780 crore to raise ownership in Uninor to 100 per cent,” said a company statement.
The money being paid by Telenor to acquire the 26 per cent stake does not reflect the valuation of Uninor as the transaction is based on the shareholders agreements signed with Valia. Other telecom companies, including AT&T, Vodafone and MTS India, have also sought to increase their holdings in their respective Indian ventures after the Government allowed 100 per cent FDI in telecom.
Expansion plans Telenor’s Indian operations have had a rough ride with the Supreme Court cancelling its initial licences as part of the 2G spectrum scam order.
But the Norwegian company has since then participated in two auctions to acquire spectrum in the range of 5Mhz to 7.2 Mhz in seven circles that together represent more than half of India’s population.
This year, Uninor has announced an additional investment of ₹500 crore towards expansion of its network and distribution infrastructure by 30 per cent. Uninor has emerged as the fourth largest mobile operator by both customer and revenues share in some of its best circles.
The company now has over 30 million subscribers and is set to launch services in its newest circle of Assam this year.