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Bharti may buy Hexacom
By siliconindia
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Friday, 02 April 2004, 20:30 IST
NEW DELHI: Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd, India's largest provider of GSM-based mobile services, is close to acquiring rival Hexacom in a deal worth four billion rupees ($92 million), a business daily reported on Friday.
The daily, quoting unnamed sources, said New Delhi-based Bharti, 28 per cent owned by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, would buy a 67.5 per cent stake in Hexacom India Ltd from its owner Shyam Telecom Ltd.
Officials from both companies were not immediately available for comment.
Thirty per cent of Hexacom is currently held by state-run Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd and the remaining 2.5 per cent is owned by a Kuwaiti firm.
Hexacom has 244,006 mobile customers and is the biggest operator of GSM-based wireless services in the western state of Rajasthan, a major tourist destination.
Hexacom competes with state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and the Indian mobile unit of the Hutchison Whampoa conglomerate in Rajasthan.
India's flourishing mobile sector has more than 32 million users and is growing at a rate of over five per cent a month, making it the world's fastest growing market, Nokia has said.
The country's user base is expected to grow to 100 million by 2005, given just three per cent of the population own mobile phones, compared with over 20 per cent in China.
The sector is undergoing a series of mergers after the government last year opened up the industry to unlimited competition.