Vodafone agrees to buy controlling stake in Hutchison Essar
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British mobile phone giant Vodafone said it has agreed to buy an 11-billion-dollar controlling interest in India's Hutchison Essar, a spokesman for the company said.
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Swisscom  has agreed to repurchase a 25 percent stake in Swisscom Mobile from British mobile phone company Vodafone  for 4.25 billion Swiss francs ($3.48 billion), in a long-awaited deal.
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Britain's Vodafone Group PLC has agreed to buy a 67 percent controlling interest in Hutchison Essar Ltd., one of India's leading cell phone companies, for $11.1 billion, Vodafone said in a statement Sunday.
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BARCELONA/HONG KONG  - Vodafone shares climbed in early Monday trading after it beat rival suitors with an $11.1 billion bid for a controlling stake in Hutchison Essar, India's fourth-biggest mobile phone firm.
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Telecom giant Vodafone said it will invest more than two billion dollars in a drive to make its new Indian purchase, Hutchison Essar, the country's biggest mobile phone company.
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Mobile phone giant Vodafone Group   confirmed on Monday its plan to enter Britain's  cut-throat fixed-line broadband Internet market via a deal with  the wholesale arm of telecoms firm BT Group .
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(InfoWorld) - Vodafone Group had almost 200 million customers by Dec. 31, but continues to face challenges in the competitive and saturated European market. The operator's European business stagnated, with fourth-quarter revenue growing just 0.9 percent year on year, excluding the effect of acquisitions. Worldwide, its growth excluding acquisitions totalled 6.1 percent. The company accounts for revenue from partly-owned subsidiaries in proportion to its holding. Vodafone said that despite low growth in Europe, some of its new calling plans, such as one that offers users a lower price for calls made within their home area and others that include fixed-line broadband Internet access, are attracting new customers. Price competition, however, is offsetting that growth. Revenue from Vodafone's operations outside Europe, excluding acquisitions, grew 14.4 percent compared to a year earlier. Egypt, Romania, South Africa, and Turkey showed particularly strong growth during the period, Vodafone said. The operator offered no further insight into itsÂ negotiations to buyÂ a controlling interest in Indian operator Hutchison Essar. The board is continuing to investigate the possibility and will only agree to a deal that meets Vodafone's financial criteria, Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin said during a conference call to discuss the results. U.S. operator Verizon Wireless, in which Vodafone owns a stake, also did well during the quarter, with Vodafone's share of the business acquiring one million new customers. Vodafone is still pleased with its stake in Verizon Wireless, although the company uses a different wireless technology to that used by Vodafone's holdings elsewhere in the world. "There is no concept of our selling our interest there," Sarin said. While rumors have surfaced regularly over the past few years that Verizon Wireless might be considering a major technology change, that's still doubtful, Sarin said. Even Apple'sÂ much anticipated iPhone, which operates on GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), the technology that competes with Verizon's CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) network, is unlikely to encourage Verizon to make a change, Sarin said. The migration to fourth-generation networks, which operators will begin to make in the next few years, will probably cement Verizon's choice. "That's the time Verizon Wireless will think about what next generation of technology that they can deploy and of course they'll try to deploy a technology that is as backward compatible as they can," he said. Data services are also paying off for Vodafone. Non-voice average revenue per user was up 62 percent for the quarter compared to the year earlier. Vodafone has attracted 50 percent of its total customers to sign up for Passport, a plan that offers reduced rates on roaming. The European Commission is proposing a regulation that would require operators to reduce their roaming rates. Vodafone doesn't expect the commission to make a final decision until this summer, said Sarin.
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India's Essar Group will remain as a key shareholder in Indian mobile services provider Hutchison Essar, but will likely negotiate stronger minority shareholder rights with Vodafone Group, which Sunday announced it wasÂ acquiring a controlling 67 percent stakeÂ in the company.
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Global telecommunications giant Vodafone on Thursday said it would retain its 45 percent stake in US company Verizon Wireless, rejecting proposals from an activist shareholder group.
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Vodafone Group Plc plans to hand 6.0  billion pounds ($11.12 billion) back to shareholders this year  after doubling half-year and full-year dividends and boosting a  multi-billion pound share buy-back program.
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Regional US telecommunications group Alltel announced it had agreed to buy Western Wireless Corp. for about six billion dollars in cash and stock.
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Splurges Indian ink Vodafone announced today it had finally netted a 67 per cent controlling interest in Indian operator Hutch Essar for $11.1bn cash.â¦
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Vodafone  shares  climbed on Monday after the British mobile phone giant beat  rival suitors with an $11.1 billion bid for a controlling stake  in Hutchison Essar, India's fourth-biggest cellphone firm.
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HONG KONG/BARCELONA  - Shares in Vodafone are expected to open higher on Monday after it beat rival suitors with an $11.1 billion bid for a controlling stake in Hutchison Essar, India's fourth-biggest mobile phone firm.
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Essar is keeping its 33% stake in Hutchison Essar after Vodafone bought out its partner, Hutchison Telecom.
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HONG KONG: Hutchison Whampoa Ltd said yesterday it paid 469.55 million euros (US$631.5mil) to buy a 1.6% stake in its Italian 3G mobile phone venture and to repay a loan from CIR unit Cirtel.
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(InfoWorld) - An Indian NGO (non-government organization) called Telecom Watchdog has filed a petition with the High Court of Delhi, alleging that foreign shareholding in mobile services operator Hutchison Essar is in breach of the Indian government's regulations on foreign direct investment (FDI). Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. (HTIL) announced in February that it hadÂ entered into an agreementÂ with a subsidiary of Vodafone GroupÂ to sell its 67 percent direct and indirect equity and loan interests in Hutchison Essar for a total cash consideration of $11.1 billion. India's Essar Group, HTIL's joint venture partner in Hutchison Essar, holds 33 percent of the equity in the joint venture, with some 22 percent of this held by an Essar group company registered abroad. Indian government regulations allow a maximum of 74 percent foreign holding in an Indian telecom services company. If one were to add HTIL's 67 percent interest in Hutchison Essar with the 22 percent held by an Essar entity abroad, it would appear that the total foreign equity is in excess of the 74 percent limit, but there are other Indian shareholders besides Essar also involved, said an informed source. Telecom Watchdog was not immediately available for comment. HTIL spokeswoman Mickey Shiu said Thursday that Hutchison Essar was fully compliant with Indian rules on foreign direct investment. Shiu confirmed that there were other Indian shareholders besides Essar, but declined to give a breakdown of its 67 percent interest in Hutchison Essar. The petition by Telecom Watchdog alleges that as a result of HTIL's arrangements with Indian shareholders of Hutchison Essar, the foreign shareholding in Hutchison Essar is in breach of the foreign direct investment (FDI) regulations in India. It alleges that HTIL provided loans to its Indian partners to help them acquire equity in Hutchison Essar. HTIL shareholders vote Friday on the proposed sale of HTIL's interest in Hutchison Essar to Vodafone. The Indian government's Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) is meanwhile looking into all aspects of the transaction between HTIL and Vodafone. The scrutiny by the FIPB follows Vodafone's request for government approval for the proposed sale of HTIL's interest in Hutchison Essar to a Vodafone subsidiary, and is not an investigation into any irregularities in foreign holding in the company, Shiu said. The FIPB had approved HTIL's reorganization of its holding and the shareholding pattern in Hutchison Essar last year as way back as July last year, she added. Negotiations are still going onÂ between the Essar Group and Vodafone on a shareholder agreement. The Essar Group wants joint control of strategic decisions at Hutchison Essar.