Norway’s Telenor has decided to write down the remaining fixed and intangible assets in India amounting to 3.9 billion kroner.
This is on account of the uncertainty caused by proposals announced by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
Telenor had earlier written off 4.3 billion kroner as a result of the Supreme Court's ruling to cancel licences.
“The value of our Indian operations is now at zero in our books but this does not mean we are exiting,’’ said Mr Sigve Brekke, Head of Telenor's Asia operations. The company said that the write-off was being done as a precautionary measure.
“If the recommendation from TRAI in its current form should be approved by the Department of Telecommunications, it will be almost impossible to participate in the auction for Telenor. Telenor is working actively towards Indian authorities to bring forward an acceptable framework for continued operations,’’ the company said.
Earlier another foreign player Sistema JSFC, which owns little over 56 per cent stake in Sistema Shyam, said its consolidated results for the fourth quarter of 2011 and the full year were impacted as it has written off $698 million on India operations.
The write-off primarily relates to the $346-million loss from impairment of SSTL licences following the Supreme Court ruling to cancel its licences and another $352 million as goodwill write-off.