The deal between Hutchison Telecom International and Vodafone to buy the former’s 67 per cent stake in Hutch Essar is far from sealed. Vodafone, probably anticipating risks of long litigation tussles, has reserved the right to walk away from the $11.1-billion deal just in case the deal consummation gets delayed by more than a year or if there is a protracted litigation.
There are already some murmurs in the air. For instance, Essar has expressed its protest over Vodafone’s decision to get into an infrastructure sharing agreement with Bharti without consulting with them. Essar, which holds 33 per cent stake in Hutch, said that Vodafone is treating the Hutch deal as a “done deal”. In fact, it’s only an MoU as of now. In another instance, the Hindujas are not believed to be happy with the outcome of the bidding process. For one, they had put in the highest bid and still didn’t make the grade. Second, the bidding process was hurried even when the Hindujas were in the midst of the due diligence process.
On the positive side, the deal is expected to be completed on April 2, 2007.
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