Bharti nets $5 M profit in Seychelles

By siliconindia   |   Monday, 25 October 2004, 19:30 IST
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SRINAGAR: After recording a net profit of $5 million in the island nation of Seychelles with a subscriber base of 22,000, Sunil Mittal's Bharti Enterprises has bought a hotel there for an undisclosed amount. "We have made a net profit of $5 million in Seychelles and a subscriber base of 22,000. Since there are stringent foreign exchange repatriation regulations in Seychelles for foreign companies, we have bought a hotel to get the benefits of forex repatriation," said chairman and group MD, Sunil Mittal. He did not disclose the deal size. Bharti Enterprises has acquired 'Le Meridien Barbarons Hotel' in Seychelles and is renovating it as a 5-star resort. In 1997, Bharti Global, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bharti Enterprises, had won the licence to operate as a national telecom operator in the Seychelles. With this licence, Bharti had become the first Indian company to provide comprehensive telecom services outside the country. Bharti and its partners from Mauritius, UK and Seychelles invested over $25 million in Telecom Seychelles which provide basic telephony, GSM cellular services, long distance and international telecom services. Apart from getting repatriation advantages, the move to have a hotel in the island nation could be another source of revenue for Bharti Enterprises as Seychelles is known as a tourist destination.