Realty firm, Unitech has applied to a local court seeking to restrain Norway's Telenor from investing in any new telecoms venture in India that would compete with companies' existing joint venture. Telenor owns 67.25% stake in the Indian telecoms joint venture, which operates under the Uninor brand, with the remainder being held by Unitech.
A dispute between the two companies, which had been simmering for some time, boiled over after India's Supreme Court on February 2, ordered the scrapping of 122 mobile phone licenses issued without auction since January 2008 to several companies, including Unitech Wireless, stating that the allocations were rigged and underpriced.
Telenor, which had bought into the venture after the permits had been granted, accused Unitech of 'fraud and misrepresentation' and hence is seeking to migrate the joint venture business to a new company to seek licences in an auction.
