Bharti Airtel to acquire Tata’s consumer mobile business

The Department of Telecom is set to issue an approval letter for the merger of Tata Teleservices’ consumer mobile business with Bharti Airtel next week. The acquisition is subject to requisite regulatory approvals, a statement from Airtel said on Thursday.

After the deal, the customers of Tata Teleservices will be on Airtel network and gain access to all tariff plans and other content services of Sunil Mittal’s company.

“We will issue the Airtel the approval letter in February, official sources said.

They have also decided not to pursue the case in the Supreme Court after the court declined to stay telecom tribunal TDSAT order that had cleared the deal with some payment.

Once the deal approval communication comes from the government, Airtel will get an additional 178.5 MHz spectrum in three crucial bands of “1800 MHz, 2100 MHz and 850 MHz” that are widely used for 4G network.

The DoT had moved the Supreme Court against the telecom tribunal’s order to clear the merger deal between Bharti Airtel and the consumer mobility business of Tata Teleservices in November last year.

This was after the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) in May partially stayed DoT’s demand for about Rs8,300 crore in bank guarantee on OTSC (one-time spectrum charges (OTSC).

As directed by TDSAT, Airtel had submitted a Rs644 crore bank guarantee in TDSAT for Tata Tele merger after it granted partial stay on a Rs8,300-crore demand raised by the telecom department from Bharti Airtel.

The tribunal had asked Airtel to submit 50 per cent payment of Rs1,287.97 crore demand raised by the Department of Telecom (DoT) as OTSC for Chennai circle licence extension from Nov.30, 2014, to Sept.27, 2021.

While doing so, the TDSAT had asked DoT to take on record the merger of Bharti Airtel and Bharti Hexacom with demerged undertaking of Tata Teleservices.

It had asked Airtel to submit half of the Rs1,287.97-crore demand raised by DoT as OTSC for the Chennai circle licence extension from Nov.30, 2014 to Sept.27, 2021 within four weeks.

The tribunal had also allowed the merging companies to “operationalise the spectrum and undertake other consequential activities”.

Accordingly, while Airtel had paid the required amount and announced the completion of the merger in July, DoT did not give a formal approval.

As part of the agreement signed between Airtel and the Tata Group company in October 2017, Airtel was to absorb the telco’s consumer mobile operations in 19 circles − 17 under Tata Teleservices and two under Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) − and also to take over a small portion of the unpaid spectrum liability of Tata Teleservices.

Bharti Airtel is acquiring the Tata conglomerate’s consumer mobile business, Tata Teleservices virtually free of charge in a deal that gives India’s top wireless player a major subscriber base boost, while stemming the bleed for Tata from a money-losing venture.

The acquisition is subject to requisite regulatory approvals, a statement from Airtel said on Thursday.

Bharti Airtel and Tata have entered into an understanding to merge consumer mobile businesses (CMB) of Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Ltd (TTML) into Bharti Airtel. The merger is being done on a debt-free cash-free basis, except for Bharti Airtel assuming a small portion of the unpaid spectrum liability of Tata’s towards DoT, which is to be paid on deferred basis, the joint-statement added.

Bharti Airtel will absorb CMB of TTSL and TTML across the country in 19 circles (17 under TTSL and two under TTML). The Bharti Board, which met on Thursday afternoon, has approved this transaction. The Boards of Tata Sons, TTSL and TTML, too, have given their approval. With the deal, Bharti Airtel will get over 40 million customers with high churn rate and over 5,000 employees.

The transaction will also provide Bharti Airtel with an indefeasible right to use (IRU) part of the existing fibre network of Tata.

Tata is also in initial stages of exploring a combination of its Enterprise Business with Tata Communications and its Retail Fixed Line and Broadband business with Tata Sky. Any such transaction will be subject to respective boards and other requisite approvals, the statement added.

Tata will retain its stake in Viom, and will take care of the liabilities associated with it.

Agencies