Japan's DoCoMo makes open
offer for Tata's telecom firm
By Girish Bhaskar
New
Delhi, Nov 14 (IANS) Leading Japanese mobile phone operator
NTT DoCoMo Friday made a Rs.9.49 billion ($194 million) open
offer for 20 percent of the outstanding equity of Tata Teleservices
Maharashtra, a part of the $62-billion Tata group.
The
offer opens Jan 8 and closes Jan 27, the company said in a
filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange. The Japanese company
had Wednesday announced a $2.7-billion deal to acquire 26-percent
stake in Tata Teleservices.
The
purchase of shares by DoCoMo is subject to required approval
from both the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) and
the Reserve Bank of India, the filing added.
Addressing
a press conference here later, Ratan Tata, chairman of the
group, said they were forging a long-term relationship with
the Japanese company - one that will give customers a wide
variety of value-added services.
"We
hope to give together, give the public, a much wider range
of products and excellent bases of service, not only in the
current technologies but also in the technologies yet to come,"
he said.
"DoCoMo,
along with Tata Teleservices Ltd, has plans to penetrate the
Indian telecom market with advanced technology and develop
new value-added service offerings," added Ryuji Yamada,
chief executive of the company.
Tata
Teleservices Maharashtra is a listed company, in which Tata
Teleservices has 37 percent stake. The company's shares closed
nearly 12.25 percent higher at Rs.20.19 on the Mumbai exchange
Friday.
"The
cooperation between DoCoMo and Tata Teleservices across marketing,
handset development and technical support is expected to create
new opportunities for both companies," said Anil Sardana,
the managing director of the Indian mobile phone company.
"We
will roll out the GSM technology by January 2009," he
said. The company, is at present better known as a player
in the CDMA market.
DoCoMo's
move follows a series of high-value deals in India's mobile
space in recent years, triggered off by Britain-based Vodafone
acquiring 67-percent stake in Hutch-Essar at an enterprise
value of $19.3 billion.
In
recent weeks, Norwegian giant Telenor acquired significant
stake in Swan Telecom and UAE's Etisalat bought equity in
Unitech Wireless.
They
are all eyeing the fast-expanding India's telecom market that
is added 8-10 million subscribers every month. The subscriber
base for mobile and fixed-line stood at 353.66 million in
September.
Indo-Asian
News Service
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