Bahrain Telecommunications Co. plans to sell most of its stake in its Indian joint venture, two people familiar with the matter said Wednesday, as it seeks to unlock value from its investment in one of the country's smallest telecom operators.
Batelco is looking to sell up to 30% of S Tel Pvt. Ltd. and has hired an investment bank to approach potential buyers, the people said. Batelco holds 42.7% of S Tel.
The planned deal comes at a time when Indian telecom operators, especially small players such as S Tel, are bleeding because of intense competition that has kept call tariffs low and due to high debt costs for expansion and acquiring bandwidth. Any sale would also help Batelco scale back its exposure to India, where the government is likely to announce new rules on mergers and acquisitions later this year, which could drive consolidation in the sector.
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