Bharti Airtel, the country’s No 1 phone company, has received approvals from Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) for the proposed merger with Telenor India.
Airtel and Telenor India have also filed a joint company application before the New Delhi Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal for approval of the proposed scheme of merger, the Sunil Mittal-led telco said in an official statement on Thursday.
The merger, is inter alia subject to other statutory approvals including from the Competition Commission of India (CCI), Airtel added.
Back in February, Airtel had announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement with Telenor South Asia Investments Pte to acquire Telenor India’s running operations in seven circles – Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, UP (East), UP (West) and Assam.
These circles represent a high population concentration and therefore offer a high potential for growth.
The proposed acquisition will include transfer of all of Telenor India’s assets and customers, further augmenting Airtel’s overall customer base and network. It will also enable Airtel to further bolster its spectrum holdings in these seven circles, with the addition of 43.4 MHz spectrum in the 1800 MHz band.
By Baishakhi Dutta
