Emirates Telecom (Etisalat) is one of the richer overseas operators which is known to be chasing expansion now that India allows investment in its new 3G entities. This week its senior executives steered thinking away from any partnership with Reliance Communications, the only 3G operator without a major international stakeholder, and pointed it instead at a deal to acquire a major stake in second tier player Idea Cellular alongside existing investor there, Malaysia's Axiata Group.
The idea came out of an interview between Bloomberg and Jamal Al-Jarwan, CEO for international investments at Etisalat.
The UAE based Etisalat was one of three or four players thought to be in the running for a 25% stake in India's Reliance Communications along with other rivals such as AT&T or South Africa's MTN. Vodafone's Essar operation in India has gone on record saying that there needs to be a series of mergers or joint ventures as smaller rivals fail, despite India's mobile population growing faster in percentage terms than every territory in the world including China. The problem in India is the rising debt of its cellular players.
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