We were incorporated as Birla Communications Limited on March 14, 1995
and granted a certificate of
commencement of business on August 11, 1995. Our registered office
was in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Our
name was changed to Birla AT&T Communications Limited on May 30, 1996
following the execution of a
joint venture agreement dated December 5, 1995 between AT&T
Corporation and Grasim Industries
Limited pursuant to which the Aditya Birla Group held 51% of our
Equity Share capital and AWS Group
held 49% of our Equity Share capital. Our registered office was
transferred from Industry House, 1st Floor,
159 Church Gate Reclamation, Mumbai 400 020, Maharashtra to Suman
Tower, Plot No. 18, Sector 11,
Gandhinagar 382011 Gujarat on October 22, 1996. With effect from
January 1, 2001 following our merger
with Tata Cellular Limited the joint venture agreement between AT&T
Corporation and Grasim Industries
Limited dated December 5, 1995 was replaced by a shareholders
agreement dated December 15, 2000
entered into between Grasim Industries Limited on behalf of the
Aditya Birla Group, Tata Industries
Limited on behalf of the Tata Group and AT&T Wireless Services Inc.
on behalf of the AWS Group
following which our name was changed to Birla Tata AT&T Limited on
November 6, 2001. Consequent to
the introduction of the “Idea” brand, our name was changed to Idea
Cellular Limited on May 1, 2002. The
AWS Group exited from the Company on September 28, 2005 by selling
371,780,740 Equity Shares of the
Company, which constituted 50% of the holding of AT&T Cellular
Private Limited in our equity share
capital, to ABNL and by transferring the remaining 371,780,750 Equity
Shares to Tata Industries Limited.
The Tata Group ceased to be a shareholder of the Company on June 20,
2006 when Tata Industries Limited and Apex Investments (Mauritius)
Holding Private Limited (formerly known as AT&T Cellular Private
Limited) sold all their shares in the Company to the Aditya Birla
Group.
On October 26, 2006, P5 Asia Investments (Mauritius) Limited (“P5
Asia”) acquired 14.60% of our Equity
Share capital. Under a Governance and Exit Rights Agreement dated
October 23, 2006 between P5 Asia,
ABNL and Birla TMT, so long as an initial public offering has not
occurred and P5 Asia holds no less than 10% of our Equity Shares,
ABNL and Birla TMT are required to procure that (a) our Company and
its Subsidiaries shall not take or pursue any of the following
actions without P5 Asia’s prior consent (such consent to be obtained
in a board and/or shareholders resolution) including in respect of
(i) any merger with, acquisition of, or amalgamation or consolidation
with another company or business; (ii) assuming or permitting to exist
any borrowings or indebtedness in the nature of borrowings if the
amount of all such borrowings of our Company and its Subsidiaries
would exceed Rs. 6,800 million; (iii) entering into a new line of
business; (iv) increasing our authorized or issued share capital; or
(v) entering into a joint venture and (b) our Company makes available
to P5 Asia certain financial information relating to our Company and
its Subsidiaries such as monthly management accounts, quarterly
unconsolidated balance sheet and profit and loss account and the
annual audited consolidated balance sheets and profit and loss
accounts.
P5 Asia also has a right to appoint one director to our Board so long
as it holds at least 10% of our total
issued and outstanding Equity Shares. Mr. Biswajit Subramanian has
been appointed to our Board by P5
Asia pursuant to the exercise of the above right. In addition, any
IPO of our Equity Shares requires P5
Asia’s written consent, and, further, in any such IPO, P5 Asia has
the right to offer for sale such number of Equity Shares representing
up to 10% of the total Equity Shares which are held by it. By its
letters dated December 2, 2006 to ABNL and Birla TMT, P5 Asia has
given its written consent for the Issue and has confirmed that it
does not intend to offer for sale any of the Equity Shares held by it
in such Issue.
We, either directly or through our Subsidiaries, provide mobile
services in the Andhra Pradesh, Delhi,
Gujarat, Haryana, Kerala, Madhiya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar
Pradesh (West) Circles, and have
recently launched services and as such are in the process of fully
rolling-out our network in the Uttar
Pradesh (East), Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh Circles pursuant to
licenses issued by the DoT.
MAJOR EVENTS
MAJOR EVENTS
The chronology of key events of the Company from incorporation is set
out below:
1995:
Incorporated as Birla Communications Limited
Obtained licenses for providing GSM-based services in the Gujarat and
Maharashtra Circles
following the original GSM license bidding process
1996:
Changed name to Birla AT&T Communications Limited following joint
venture between Grasim Industries and AT&T Corporation
1997:
Commenced operations in the Gujarat and Maharashtra Circles
1999:
Migrated to revenues share license fee regime under New
Telecommunications Policy (“NTP”)
2000:
Merged with Tata Cellular Limited, thereby acquiring original license
for the Andhra Pradesh Circle
2001:
Acquired RPG Cellular Limited and consequently the license for the
Madhya Pradesh (including Chattisgarh) Circle
Changed name to Birla Tata AT&T Limited
2001:
Obtained license for providing GSM-based services in the Delhi Circle
following the fourth operator GSM license bidding process
2002:
Changed name to Idea Cellular Limited and launched “Idea” brand name
. Commenced commercial operations in Delhi Circle
. Reached the one million subscriber mark
2003:
Reached the two million subscriber mark
2004:
Completed debt restructuring for the then existing debt facilities
and
additional funding for the Delhi Circle.
Acquired Escotel Mobile Communications Limited (subsequently renamed
as
Idea Mobile Communications Limited)
Reached the four million subscriber mark
First operator in India to commercially launch EDGE services
2005:
-Reached the five million subscriber mark
-Turned profit positive
-Won an award for the “Bill Flash” service at the GSM Association
Awards in Barcelona, Spain
Sponsored the International Indian Film Academy Awards
-Sponsored the International Indian Film Academy Awards
2006:
-Became part of the Aditya Birla Group subsequent to the TATA Group
transferring its entire shareholding in the Company to the Aditya
Birla Group
-Acquired Escorts Telecommunications Limited (subsequently renamed as
Idea Telecommunications Limited)
-Restructuring of debt
-Launch of the New Circles
-Reached the 10 million subscriber mark
-Received Letter of Intent from the DoT for a new UAS License for
the
Mumbai Circle.
-Received Letter of Intent from the DoT for a new UAS License for the
Bihar
-Circle through Aditya Birla Telecom Limited. ABNL, the parent of
Aditya
-Birla Telecom Limited, pursuant to a letter dated November 22, 2006,
agreed to transfer its
entire shareholding in Aditya Birla Telecom Limited to the Company
for the consideration of
Rs. 100 million.
2007
-Won an award for the CARE service in the Best Billing or Customer
Care Solution at the GSM Association Awards in Barcelona, Spain
-Initial Public Offering aggregating to Rs. 28,187 million and
Listing of Equity Shares on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the
National Stock Exchange
-Merger of seven subsidiaries with Idea Cellular Limited
-Reached the twenty million subscriber mark
2008
- Idea Cellular Ltd has informed that the Board of Directors of the
Company at its meeting held on October 20, 2008, inter alia, has
appointed the following persons as Directors on the Board of the
Company:
1. Mr. R C Bhargava - Independent Director (Additional Director)
2. Mr. P Murari - Independent Director - (Additional Director)
3. Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya - Non Executive Director (Nominee of TM
International Bhd).
-Idea acquired 9 licences for Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu &
Chennai, West Bengal, Orissa, Kolkata, Assam, North East and Jammu &
Kashmir
-Acquired Spice Communications with the operating circles of Punjab
and Karnataka
-Launched services in Mumbai metro in the largest single metro city
launch, ever
-Launched services in Bihar
2009
-Subscriber base as on December 31, 2009: 57,611,872
-Idea becomes a pan-India operator
-Emerging Company of the Year - fastest growing mobile operator in
the world’s fastest growing telecom market
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