Norway’s Telenor has raised its stake in Unitech Wireless to 49 per cent from 33.5 per cent, by infusing the second tranche of the funds (Rs 1,130 crore).
Telenor had injected the first tranche of Rs 1,250 crore for a 33.5 per cent stake in Unitech Wireless in March this year.
The infusion of funds is in line with Telenor’s plans of pumping-in a total of Rs 6,120 crore of new equity into Unitech Wireless to acquire an overall shareholding of 67.25 per cent. The balance will be held by Unitech Ltd.
In a notice to the BSE, Unitech further said, “Unitech Wireless on May 19, has received a sum of around Rs 240 crore from Telenor as share application money for issuance of additional equity shares in Unitech Wireless in order to maintain its stake at 49 per cent level, post conversion into equity of bonds of Rs 250 crore issued by Unitech Wireless to an Indian shareholder.”
Industry watchers pointed out that so far Telenor, in various tranches, has put in Rs 2,380 crore for a 49 per cent stake in Unitech Wireless. Effectively, 51 per cent of this value can be seen belonging to Unitech, in lieu of its current holding.
It may be recalled that earlier this month, Unitech Wireless had selected Alcatel-Lucent to support the initial launch of its GSM/EDGE mobile service offering.
Alcatel-Lucent will deploy turn-key GSM/EDGE networks in Kerala and Orissa circles.
Source: The Hindu Businessline