Mittal vows to defend Bharti's legacy as market leader

Sunil Batra

BARCELONA: Bharti Airtel on Monday vowed to defend its legacy as the market leader in the face of Vodafone acquiring Hutch-Essar and said it would match any "aggressive" approach from the UK giant.

"If Vodafone ups aggression and goes for further acquistions (in India), we will have to up our ante... we would like to defend our legacy... we are market leaders," Bharti group Chief Sunil Mital said.

After emerging as top bidder for majority stake in India's fourth largest mobile player Hutch-Essar, Vodafone committed to exit from Bharti Airtel by selling its 5.6 per
cent direct stake to the promoters for 1.6 billion dollars.

Mittal said that Vodafone had secured a good deal and it as a "testimony to the strength of India's telecom sector" and clarified that his group would pay after 18 months for
buying back the shares from the UK company after it concludes the Hutch-Essar deal.

Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin, who is scheduled to attend tomorrow's session of the ongoing 3GSM summit here, is expected to touch base with Mittal, in whose group the UK telecom firm still would have over 4 per cent equity.

Mittal said: "Vodafone's exit is going to allow us to go to the newer market," but hedged a direct query on whether he would sell the 5.6 per cent equity, which he was buying back, to another existing strategic partner Singtel.

"Singtel is always interested to increase its stake (in Bharti Airtel)... now there is no specific move."