Newbury (UK) March 26

Vodafone sees "no big surprise" in the Indian regulatory authorities' move to delve deep into the existing shareholding pattern of Hutchison Essar before taking a call on its investment proposal.

The world's largest mobile services company by revenues has also said that it is not looking at any backdoor route to acquire controlling interest in Hutchison Essar.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) is currently considering an application of Vodafone for acquiring 52 per cent direct stake of the Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd in Hutchison Essar on an enterprise value of about $18.8 billion.

"There is no big surprise here. We think we are in compliance with the structure that has been around in the last year or so," Mr Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone, told a select group of visiting Indian journalists.

"We are simply walking into Hutchison's shoes. Whatever FIPB wants to know, we will tell them. Frankly, we are not disappointed."

He was responding to a query on FIPB's move to raise certain questions (about 13) on the transaction, including the shareholding structure of Hutchison Essar.

"At the end of the day, I want the FIPB, the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Communications, the Minister of Industry and the Prime Minister to say that you are welcome here. The last thing we want to do is to show up there (India) and allow some people to say... Are you coming into India through back door or side door?"

He added that Vodafone was a large company and its coming to India was bound to generate interest in the transaction.

"We are going to come to India with network, handsets and new services, including those which are entertainment and information based. In about 6-8 months you will see that Vodafone has arrived."

Taken from Business Line

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