Maxis may buy 26% of Aircel

Posted on | December 22, 2005 |

Business Standard reports that Malaysian telco Maxis Communications Berhad may pay $280 million (Rs 1,265.32 crore) for a 26% stake in the C Sivasankaran-controlled Aircel Ltd.

At an enterprise value of $1.07 billion (Rs 4835.3 crore), the Malaysian company will be paying about $496 (around Rs 22,414) per subscriber for the deal. The valuation is much lower than the $1,000 (Rs 45,190) per subscriber that Vodafone paid for a 10 per cent stake in Bharti Televentures and the $570 (Rs 25,758) a subscriber paid by Essar for buying out BPL Telecom.

Sivasankaran refused to comment on the deal. This is the fourth time he has struck a deal to sell Aircel. His earlier moves were stalled because the department of telecommunications (DoT) refused to issue the necessary clearances.

In June last year, Sivasankaran had struck a deal with Hutchison Essar to sell the entire equity of the company for $362 million (Rs 1,635.9 crore). With a subscriber base of 850,000 at that time, Hutch was willing to pay around Rs 18,000 per subscriber. But the deal fell through because the DoT did not clear the acquisition.

In February this year, Sivasankaran signed an agreement with AFK Sistema of Russia to sell a 49 per cent stake for $450 million (Rs 2,033.5 crore).

This deal expired in March. However, the company was offering $546 per (Rs 24,674) subscriber

Category: News

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