Telecom M&A guidelines to be in place within 10 days: Telecom Secretary

20 Feb 2014 Evaluate

In a move likely to encourage consolidation in the telecom sector, the much-awaited guidelines for mergers and acquisitions of telecom companies are expected to be in place within 10 days, as reported by Telecom Secretary MF Farooqui.

Presently, the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), which have approved the guidelines, have sought legal opinion on whether consolidation of companies would amount to sale of equity, violating the lock-in period rule of the telecom licence.

As per the guidelines approved by the EGoM, the market share of a merged entity should not exceed 50%. However, if a merged entity breaches this 50 per cent ceiling in any circle, the companies will get a year to lower the share to below 50 per cent. Going by market share in terms of both user base and revenues - where merged entities would not cross the 50 per cent threshold in any of the 22 circles - complete mergers are possible between Vodafone and Aircel, Idea Cellular and Aircel, Reliance Communications (RCom) and Aircel.

As per the fine-print drawn, telecom companies that bought spectrum in just concluded 2G spectrum auctions would not have to make any kind of additional payments to the government for radio-waves after a merger. However, those who acquire telecom operators that had been allocated spectrum will have to pay the difference between the market rate and the old rate to the government.

Further, Farooqui underscored that while auction was one of the way to acquire spectrum, M&A would serve as another way in which spectrum can be acquired.

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