Aditya Birla telecom gets nod for FDI proposal

New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved Aditya Birla Telecom Ltd’s proposal to bring in foreign direct investment of Rs 2,704.21 crore from a Mauritius-based private equity entity fund. This gives P5 Asia Holdings Investments (Mauritius) 20 per cent stake in ABTL, which is a subsidiary of Idea Cellular Ltd.

Aditya Birla Telecom has a licence to offer mobile services in the Bihar circle and Jharkhand.

It also holds equity stake in Indus Tower the infrastructure company jointly owned by Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and ABTL.

It also had a licence for Mumbai but surrendered it after the Department of Telecom did not allow the company to have two licences in the same circle. Idea Cellular also has a licence for Mumbai. ABTL was floated by the Birla Group when Tata had a stake in Idea Cellular.

The purpose of the company was to get licences separately where Idea Cellular did not have operations.

The CCEA approval is, however, subject to conditions recommended by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board. P5 Asia Holdings Investments (Mauritius) Ltd, which is investing into the company, is a member of the Providence Equity Group.

The deal with ABTL was announced in May 2008.