Mumbai: India?s Hinduja group has now joined the bandwagon to acquire the mobile phone operator Hutchison Essar Ltd. valued at around $ 17-$ 20 billion money battle. Hinduja TMT Executive Chairman Ashok Hinduja commented that the group was interested in having a 51 percent stake to get the controlling rights. It was waiting for a confirmation on the bid. Hutchison Essar, 67 percent owned by Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. is the fourth-largest mobile phone operator in India. Britain?s Vodafone and India?s second-largest mobile company and Reliance Communications, have already expressed interest in buying a stake in the company. India?s Essar, a steel-to-shipping group controlled by the Ruia family, owns the rest of the 33 percent. The group is itself interested in buying some stake or the entire firm. On its side, Hutchison confirmed receiving proposals but refused to divulge information about the offers. The Hinduja family used to hold a 5.1 percent stake in Hutchison Essar but sold it to Hutchison last June for $450 million (around 2,000 crore). ?When we sold it, (Hutchison Essar) was valued around $ 9.6 billion, let us see how much the seller wants. In transactions like these, there?s always a premium to the market or intrinsic value,? says Hinduja. He further added that funding was not a concern. India?s mobile phone users increased by more than 6 million in October alone, and the government expects 180 million mobile users by the end of 2007, up more than 25 percent from 143 million now. Analysts say mobile penetration could double over two years from 12 percent now and triple in four. Reliance Communications, is making moves to shift from CDMA to GSM technology. As per a report by Macquarie research, Reliance is planning for new GSM operations in 14 circles to create a pan-India GSM business. The research also reports an equity value of $12.18 billion for Hutchison Essar. The report explains that the acquisition will be beneficial to Reliance enabling them to reduce the time to market with a pan-India GSM offering. Chairman Anil Ambani, Reliance Communications? informs that the board is set to consider fund-raising, confident of having some top global backing. Goldman Sachs estimates an offer of $18 billion would imply an enterprise value some 27 times estimated 2006 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization.