Telenor to buy 100% stake in Uninor

Norway based telecom giant Telenor group on Friday said it will take complete ownership of its Indian unit Uninor by acquiring the 26% stake which is held by Lakshdeep Investments for Rs 780 crore. 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.

"An application has been filed with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board of the government of India, seeking approval for an additional investment of Rs 780 crore to raise ownership in Uninor to 100%," Telenor said in a statement.

In July last year, FIPB had approved Telenor’s proposal to increase stake from 49 per cent to 74 per cent. It had at that time invested Rs 1,000 crore for the extra 25 per cent stake.

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.

Telenor becomes the third foreign cellular telephone operator to seek a nod for 100 per cent control in the Indian business unit since the government allowed 100 per cent foreign direct investment in the sector, in July 2013. Vodafone India has raised stake in its Indian subsidiary to 100 per cent for an investment of Rs 10,141 crore. Russia’s Sistema JSFC has sought approval to increase its stake beyond 74 per cent in Sistema Shyam Teleservices.

This year, Uninor had announced an additional investment of Rs 500 crore towards expansion of its network and distribution infrastructure by 30 per cent. Uninor, which has over 30 million customers, offers services in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, UP East and UP West and is planning to launch services Assam this year.