The equity shareholders and unsecured creditors of Bharti Airtel have voted in favour of the Airtel-Telenor India deal.
In a communication to stock exchanges on Thursday, the company sent the voting results and report of meetings of equity shareholders and unsecured creditors which happened on September 19 as per the directions of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
As per the communication, 99.97% of the votes of shareholders were in favour of the deal.
The results of the meeting will be presented to NCLT, which will then give it's final approval to the deal.
The meeting for equity shareholders and unsecured creditors of Bharti Airtel was convened on September 19 as per the directions of NCLT in their order dated July 28, 2017 to approve the scheme of amalgamation between Telenor India Communications and Bharti Airtel and their respective shareholders and creditors.
The voting was completed on Tuesday.
In February this year, Airtel announced acquiring operations of Telenor India in seven telecom service areas -- Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, eastern and western Uttar Pradesh, and Assam.
Bharti Airtel will take over Telenor's outstanding spectrum payments and other operational contracts, including tower lease. The deal won't involve any cash ouflow but spectrum deferrred payments to be around Rs 1,600 crore will be taken over by Airtel besides Rs 4,000 crore of lease obligations. Both the companies that time said the deal is likely to be completed in 12 months.
One of the proxy advisory firms Institutional Investor Advisory Services (IiAS) has supported the merger between Bharti Airtel and Telenor India while another proxy advisory firm Stakeholders Empowerment Services (SES) has advised Bharti Airtel's shareholders to reject the company's proposal to acquire Telenor India.
The deal came amid intense competition post the entry of new player Reliance Jio in the sector, which has severly impacted the financials of the incumbents.
For Telenor, the deal will help in exiting the Indian telecom market. It entered India in 2008 in a tie-up with real estate firm Unitech Ltd. Telenor-Unitech joint venture started services in a few areas in December 2009, but received a jolt in February 2012 when the Supreme Court cancelled its licences along with those of many other companies after ruling that the permits were granted illegally. Telenor subsequently bought out Unitech and won licences for seven telecom areas and has been a regional player.
THE RIGHT CALL
- For Telenor, the deal will help in exiting the Indian telecom market
- The deal came amid intense competition post the entry of Reliance Jio
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