After ending its telecom joint venture Uninor with Unitech, Norway’s Telenor on Friday said it has signed Lakshdeep Investments and Finance as the partner for its newly formed Indian entity Telewings Communications.
Lakshdeep, controlled by Sudhir Valia, will contribute an agreed amount of equity into Telewings.
Mr. Valia is the brother-in-law of Dilip Shanghvi, who is the promoter of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries.
“This is a financial investment by Valia in his personal capacity”, Telenor said in a statement.
“Upon successful participation in the upcoming spectrum auctions and post all required government approvals, Telenor Group will eventually own 74 per cent of the joint venture,” the statement said.
All assets of Unitech Wireless will be transferred to this company after attaining the approvals.
“Telenor Group will maintain operational control and upon necessary approvals all assets of Unitech Wireless (Uninor) will be transferred to this company for seamless continuity of operations,” the statement added.
Telewings has already applied for prequalification procedure to participate in the upcoming spectrum auction.
However, a final decision on whether to participate or not will be made before the auction starts, it added.
Earlier this month, realty major Unitech has said it will exit from the telecom joint venture with Telenor by selling its entire 32.75 per cent stake to the Norwegian firm.
Telenor and Unitech had been at loggerheads ever since the Supreme Court in February cancelled Uninor’s 22 telecom permits. Telenor wanted to scrap the JV and transfer the business to a new firm and get fresh licence, whereas Unitech was opposing it.
However, earlier this month, both Unitech and Telenor agreed to transfer the business in Uninor to a new entity controlled by the latter.
