Vodafone Idea Merged : News & Updates

[rahul1117kumar]

RE: Vodafone seeks merger with one of the top telcos in India: Report

Vodafone India could merge with Reliance Jio or Idea Cellular: Report

Reliance Jio has taken the Indian telecom market by storm with its aggressively priced data plans, bundled app subscriptions and unlimited free voice calls. The operator has already crossed 50 million subscribers, and is believed to be on course to hit 100 million by March-end. Following Jio’s commercial launch, rival telecom operators are under immense pressure to match the competition. Though the likes of Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea Cellular, also top three telcos in India, are announcing aggressive plans to retain their subscribers, they still don’t really come close to Reliance Jio’s offers. One of the biggest casualties to the growing and intense competition could be Vodafone, which is reportedly seeking a merger with either Reliance Jio or Idea Cellular.

“The company has been caught in the crossfire of a sibling rivalry that has triggered a price war and put the brakes on a planned stock market flotation of Vodafone India. The problems have weighed on the FTSE-100 giant’s shares in the last year, overshadowing improvements in its core European markets,” reports Telegraph . BGR India has reached out to Vodafone, Reliance Jio and Idea Cellular for comments on the report.

According to the industry experts, Vodafone’s reported plans could initiate the second round of consolidation in the industry. Smaller companies like Telenor could be looking out for mergers. We have already seen Aircel merging with Reliance Communications, which has itself merged with Reliance Jio. If the trend continues, we could see fewer telecom players in the country with larger user bases.

As far as Vodafone is concerned, it may find itself with fewer options for a merger. Considering that Jio is focusing on acquiring smaller players, Vodafone may look towards Idea Cellular. “It is very unlikely for Mukesh Ambani to go for merger with Vodafone India because it is not (in) his DNA to write large cheques; his strategy is different. Birla group could likely be the one and the companies could opt for share swap. The conditions for that would be that Vodafone, as it is unlisted, will need to get valuation done and receive permission from Competition Commission of India,” LiveMint quotes an industry executive as saying.

“With two decades of existence and almost a decade of being national operator, it is not too soon to expect merger for Vodafone and Idea,” the executive further said. Experts also believe Vodafone, which is a big player, could look for a buyout rather than a merger.

Currently, Vodafone is the second-largest telecom player in the country after Airtel. As of September 30, 2016, Vodafone had 19.12 percent market share while the market leader Airtel had 24.76 percent. Idea ranked third with 17.03 percent share. Interestingly, parent Vodafone had invested about Rs 47,700 crore in its India unit, but the majority of the money was spent to clear the debt. In November, Vodafone had slashed valuation of its India unit by €5 billion blaming intense competition. The company also deferred its plans to launch an IPO in India.

Vodafone India could merge with Reliance Jio or Idea Cellular: Report

 

[nambbus]

RE: Vodafone seeks merger with one of the top telcos in India: Report

Vodafone + !dea. Best combo..

 

[thisisjagan]

RE: Vodafone seeks merger with one of the top telcos in India: Report

Vodafone + !dea. Best combo.. [emoji14]

Yes. They have 3G deal in Tamil Nadu.

 

[rahul1117kumar]

RE: Vodafone seeks merger with one of the top telcos in India: Report

Vodafone, Idea Cellular deny merger possibility with Reliance Jio: Report

Quashing rumours and reports, Vodafone and Idea Cellular have denied any possiblility of merging with Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio , citing high debts and revenue share and spectrum holding caps as the reasons, reported Hindustan Times.

Some reports suggested that Vodafone was considering merging with new entrant Reliance Jio after the intensified competition.

“It is not possible… The law of the land doesn’t allow this. There are spectrum holding caps and revenue market share (RMS) caps,” a source at Vodafone said.

Denying rumours of merging with Reliance Jio, a source from Idea Cellular said, “It’s mismatched DNA (with Idea or Jio).”

While Aircel , Reliance Communications and Telenor are already looking at possible consolidation, it may not be on the cards for the incumbent telcos including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular.

“The telecom industry is in high debt, and there is almost no space to add more debt,” added the Vodafone source.

Reliance Jio: Vodafone, Idea Cellular deny merger possibility with Reliance Jio: Report, Telecom News, ET Telecom

 

[rahul1117kumar]

Vodafone-Idea merger, Jio entry could knock Bharti Airtel out of first place: Experts

Executives atop India’s mobile-phone industry foresee a consolidation that could knock
Bharti Airtel Ltd. out of first place in the $26 billion market. The catalyst: free calls and industry debt that has ratcheted up to more than double revenue.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani escalated a price war in September, vowing to reorder the market and luring tens of millions of new subscribers with Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.’s free services. Bharti Airtel cited “predatory pricing” when it reported a worse-than-expected 55 percent drop in quarterly profit on Jan. 24.

That competitive pressure is drawing attention to possible deals such as an alliance between the country’s No. 2 provider Vodafone India and its third largest, Idea Cellular Ltd., according to people familiar with the matter. Such a combination would overtake Bharti Airtel in number of subscribers.

Recurring revenue for all operators in the country will probably rise to about 2.3 trillion rupees ($34 billion) by 2020, from about 1.8 trillion rupees in 2015, industry group GSMA estimates.

Reliance Jio’s entry may be the final straw for carriers going it alone in the world’s second-largest mobile-phone market. Ambani amassed 72 million customers in four months by offering free services until April. Now, he plans to invest $4.4 billion more, adding to the $25 billion he’s already spent to take on Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea.

“One effect of Jio has been that the small operators are gone,” Billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal, who controls Bharti Airtel, said in an interview with BloombergQuint at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “I support consolidation in the industry. Wherever we have seen two, three operators with large markets, they have been profitable, they have been able to make large investments.”

Bharti’s shares rose as much as 2.3 percent in Mumbai, and changed hands at 317.80 rupees as of 12:20 p.m. in Mumbai. Idea and Reliance Communications gained about 1 percent each. The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex Index rose 0.7 percent.

Telenor ASA’s India unit and Tata Teleservices Ltd. are among the smallest carriers facing competition that’s likely to intensify as consolidation proceeds and the next generation of infrastructure demands start to emerge. In all, the country has 11 wireless carriers in an industry that will need to invest heavily to build 5G services, expected to be available by 2020.

Prior to Jio’s entry, Airtel, Vodafone and Idea were able to increase revenue and profit, even as they borrowed heavily to pay for spectrum and infrastructure. Now, like the smaller carriers, they will have to find some way to do even more with less revenue.

“With each generation of mobile evolution, such as 3G, 4G and now 5G, the cost of upgrading goes up. In telecommunication, returns are all about scale - as the fixed costs of the network are about the same for everyone,” Chris Lane, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said in a telephone interview. “As you slip down the ranks, you become more and more sub-scale and profitability keeps diminishing.”

Possible combinations:

1. Vodafone/Idea

Vodafone Group Plc’s India unit and Idea have been in talks to consolidate, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified as the talks are private. The talks were first reported by CNBC-TV18 in August. A merger would create a carrier with 387 million subscribers, a 36 percent market share and pan-India 4G spectrum.

A deal would also give Vodafone a listing in India, which it has been considering since at least 2011. At reported debt levels, the merged entity would have net debt of 718 billion rupees. Potential risks to the deal include a breach of spectrum limits that could force the merged entity to sell off valuable airwaves in a few circles, according to a report by Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Idea said speculation of a merger with Vodafone is baseless. Vodafone declined to comment.

2. Telenor

In a Jan. 19 interview, Mittal said Airtel was in talks to buy Telenor’s India unit, as were most other players in the market. Telenor is one of the market’s least indebted carriers and sat out the spectrum auction held late last year.

With a market share of about 4.9 percent, Telenor doesn’t have a pan-India presence. Its airwaves in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, as well as Maharashtra and Gujarat, would be a plus for any of the top three carriers. Telenor Chief Executive Officer Sigve Brekke said Jan. 5 the Norway-based carrier was still looking at all possibilities for its India business, one of its focuses for 2017. A Telenor spokesman declined to comment.

3. Tata Teleservices

Tata group, India’s largest conglomerate, was seeking a buyer for its loss-making telecom business as recently as late last year -- before the group named Natarajan Chandrasekaran as its next chairman -- according to people familiar with the matter.

Tata, which declined to comment, has a nationwide network with spectrum that allows carriers to offer wider coverage, especially in dense cities like Mumbai and Delhi. The company is currently enmeshed in a years-long legal dispute with NTT Docomo Inc. over the value of a stake the Japanese wireless carrier owned in the Indian venture. A settlement of the suit may make it easier for Tata to spin off the unit.

4. Aircel/Reliance Communications/Sistema

In September, billionaire Anil Ambani said his telecommunications company Reliance Communications Ltd. had achieved a “virtual merger” with the operator started by his older brother Mukesh. Investments to roll out fourth-generation services across India will be funded by Jio, the younger Ambani said.

Earlier in September, Reliance Communications said it would merge with Aircel Ltd. in a transaction that is scheduled to close this year. In 2015, Reliance Communications agreed to buy AFK Sistema’s Indian wireless unit in an all-stock deal.

5. BSNL/MTNL

A merger of state-run carriers Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd., which operates only in Mumbai and Delhi, has been mooted by the government, but has yet to materialize. Publicly listed Mahanagar Telephone has lost money in four of the past five financial years, losing 20 billion rupees in the year ended March 2016. Bharat Sanchar lost 38.03 billion rupees in the year ended March 2016, it said in its annual report posted on its website.

6. Videocon

Quadrant Televentures Ltd., which offers services in the state of Punjab under the Videocon Telecom brand, announced it was closing down on Feb. 15. The service, which had 2.97 million customers at the end of October, according to subscription data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, has asked all its subscribers to finish their prepaid balances before midnight on Feb. 15, and switch to another operator. In March 2016, Videocon sold its airwaves in six regions to Bharti Airtel for $663 million.

Vodafone-Idea merger, Jio entry could knock Bharti Airtel out of first place: Experts, Telecom News, ET Telecom

 

[Sarkar]

RE: Vodafone-Idea merger, Jio entry could knock Bharti Airtel out of first place: Experts

Vodafone confirms merger talks with Idea Cellular 

In what will create India's largest telecom company with revenues of over Rs 80,000 crore, Vodafone on Monday said that it is in exploratory discussions with the Aditya Birla group's telecom arm Idea Cellular for a merger

"Vodafone confirms that it is in discussions with the Aditya Birla Group about an all share merger of Vodafone India (excluding Vodafone's 42% stake in Indus Towers) and Idea. Any merger would be effected through the issue of new shares in Idea to Vodafone and would result in Vodafone deconsolidating Vodafone India," Vodafone said in a statement.

The combined entity would have 43 percent revenue market share and have a 40 percent active subscriber market share, according to brokerage firm CLSA. The merged entity would account for over 25% of allocated spectrum and will have to sell about 1 percent to comply with spectrum cap norms, CLSA said.

Regulatory challenges 

There are, however, regulatory hurdles on the mergers and acquisitions front that await Vodafone and Idea Cellular. M&A norms mandate that revenue market share of the merged entity should not exceed 50 percent in any circle. Also, the rules dictate that spectrum holding shouldn’t exceed 25 percent across all bands and 50 percent in each band individually. 

Experts see a spectrum cap breach in at least 5 circles in the 900 MHz band. Besides, revenue market share of the merged entity will overshoot the 50 percent threshold in six circles.


Read more at: Vodafone confirms merger talks with Idea Cellular  - Moneycontrol.com

 

[hike]

RE: Vodafone-Idea merger, Jio entry could knock Bharti Airtel out of first place: Experts

Vodafone confirms that it is in discussion with Aditya Birla Group about an all share merger of Vodafone India & Idea Cellular.

 

[AfsalAhamed]

Vodafone-Idea merger, Jio entry could knock Bharti Airtel out of first place: Experts

If it happens then Vodafone will have 50% Market Share(As per shown image) , That's interesting.. It's mainly affecting the Giant AirTel.

 

[Shivraj]

RE: Vodafone-Idea merger, Jio entry could knock Bharti Airtel out of first place: Experts

What is the new name of Vodafone after merging?:huh

 

[Sarkar]

RE: Vodafone-Idea merger, Jio entry could knock Bharti Airtel out of first place: Experts

If it happens then Vodafone will have 50% Market Share(As per shown image) , That's interesting..  It's mainly affecting the Giant AirTel.

Don't worry and bcoz of that they cannot merge they have to reduce market share