Bharti Airtel Ltd.

Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telco by both revenues and customers, may have to fork out more than Rs 1,800 crore to buy out Telecom Consultants of India’s (TCIL) 30% stake in its subsidiary Bharti Hexacom, which offers mobile services in six northeastern states (excluding Assam) and Rajasthan. At present, state-owned TCIL owns 30% in Hexacom. The consultants appointed by TCIL to oversee its exit from Bharti Hexacom have said the reserve price for its stake be set a shade over Rs 1,800 crore. This values Hexcaom, which has a customer base of around 13 million, at about Rs 6,000 crore. Bharti has the right of first refusal to TCIL’s stake in Hexacom. TCIL had earlier tried to exit Hexacom in 2005-06, but decided against it, saying the price offered by Bharti Airtel was too low. Bharti Airtel had offered Rs 262.5 crore for TCIL’s stake in Hexacom. 

Last year, DoT decided that TCIL must exit from Bharti Hexacom on account of two factors. First, TCIL had been seeking dividend payouts every year, a request that Bharti group has constantly turned down on account of the ‘fact that it (Bharti Airtel) was using all its internal generation for expansion of network to keep up with the intense competition in the market.