New Delhi – British telecoms giant Vodafone will merge its Indian subsidiary with domestic rival Idea Cellular to create the country’s largest telecoms operator, it was announced Monday.
“Vodafone Group PLC and Idea Cellular today announced that they have reached an agreement to combine their operations in India,” the companies said in a statement.
“The combined company would become the leading communications provider in India with almost 400 million customers, 35 per cent customer market share and 41 per cent revenue market share,” it added.
Vodafone will own 45.1 per cent of the combined entity, after it transfers 4.9 per cent to the Aditya Birla Group, Idea’s parent company, for 579 million dollars.
The Aditya Birla group, will hold 26 per cent, while the balance will be held by the public, it said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
The merger of Vodafone India and Idea, India’s second and third largest telecoms networks respectively, will push the country’s telecoms leader, Bharti Airtel, to the second spot.
The move comes after weeks of speculation that the firms were in talks to strike a deal to take on a new operator, Reliance Jio, which has disrupted India’s telecoms market and sparked a price war.
Launched in September by Reliance Industries, India’s leading private conglomerate, Jio has notched up a 100-million subscriber base on the back of its free voice and dramatically cheaper data service plans.
-dpa
