Bharti Airtel said it had received the approval of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), BSE and National Stock Exchange for the proposed scheme of merger between Airtel and Telenor (India) Communications Private Ltd.

Since the approvals have come from these agencies, now the Department of Telecom is expected to give its go ahead. Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha had also recently said that the mergers of companies can go ahead if the approvals come from SEBI.

Airtel further stated that Telenor India and the company on Thursday filed the joint company application before the New Delhi Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal for approval of the proposed scheme of merger.

“The merger is inter alia subject to other statutory approvals including from the Competition Commission of India,” it said.

Airtel on February 23 announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Telenor South Asia Investments Pte Ltd (Telenor) and as part of the scheme, it will acquire Telenor India’s running operations in seven circles — Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, UP (East), UP (West) and Assam.

The proposed acquisition will include transfer of all of Telenor India’s assets and customers, further augmenting Airtel’s overall customer base and network, Airtel said.

“It will also enable Airtel to further bolster its strong spectrum footprint in these seven circles, with the addition of 43.4 MHz spectrum in the 1800 MHz band,” it added.

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