Who'll Win Hutch? ; Its Large India Footprint, the Lack of Acquisition Targets in the World's Fastest Growing Telecom Market, and the Rosy Prospect of Grabbing Majority Control in India's Fourth-Largest Cellular Operator Make Hutchison Essar a Red-Hot Play.

Business Today › January 26, 2007

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Summary

...India is an interesting market along with many other markets in Asia and we are constantly on the look out for opportunities and will be evaluating many interesting prospects...

Spokesperson, Telenor, Norway's largest telecom company, to Business Today

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Who'll Win Hutch? ; Its Large India Footprint, the Lack of Acquisition Targets in the World's Fastest Growing Telecom Market, and the Rosy Prospect of Grabbing Majority Control in India's Fourth-Largest Cellular Operator Make Hutchison Essar a Red-Hot Play.

Even if you aren't one of India's 143 million cellular phone users, it wouldn't take you too long to single out Hutchison Essar Ltd (HEL) as one of those "interesting prospects". India's fourth- largest wireless operator with a subscriber base of a little over 22 million has become the most sought after asset in the recent history of global mergers & acquisitions, what with Li Ka-shing, the promoter of the Hong Kong-headquartered $3.13-billion Hutchison Telecom International (HTIL), putting its 67 per cent holding in HEL on the block (19.55 per cent of it is held indirectly via a company called Telecom Investments India, which has HEL Managing Director Asim Ghosh and Max India Chairman Analjit Singh as shareholders). With HEL in play as the backdrop, and going by the reams of speculation generated in recent days, one would be tempted to assume that the company that made the statement about evaluating prospects in India could be Vodafone. Or Verizon. Or Maxis. Or Orascom. Or even the UK-headquartered Hinduja Group. After all, each of these global majors has either evinced, or is said to have evinced interest, in the assets of HEL, which stood at Rs 4,052 crore for the first half of 2006. Also in the running are domestic corporations Reliance Communications (R-Comm) and the Essar Group, which holds 33 per cent in HEL via its holding company Ess...

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