Pages

Total Pageviews

Thursday, July 26, 2018

Vodafone-Idea merger gets final approval from government

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT)on Thursday July 26,2018  has approved the merger of Vodafone India Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd after the companies paid Rs 3900 crore in cash andRs 3300 crore in Bank Guarantees towards one-time spectrum charges, a senior DoT official said. “We have given final approval for the merger as they have paid the required dues,” a senior official from the DoT said requesting anonymity.

The new entity will be called Vodafone Idea Ltd. The companies will now have to apply to the Registrar of Companies for registration of the merged entity.

While ₹ 3,900 crore cash is for transfer of spectrum from Vodafone to Idea for spectrum up to 4.4 MHz, the bank guarantee of ₹ 3,300 crore is for Idea Cellular’s airwaves beyond 4.4 MHz.

One-time spectrum charges are payable by companies which want to convert their administered spectrum or spectrum not bought in an auction to liberalized or auctioned spectrum. Auctioned spectrum can be deployed flexibly for any purpose, unlike administered spectrum.

“Vodafone’s bank guarantees towards yearly instalments of payments of spectrum will need to be replaced by Idea. Banks will need to amend the guarantees. The companies will start this process now. Rest all conditions have been adhered to,” the official said

No comments:

Post a Comment