NEW DELHI, India—India’s Bharti has acquired a controlling stake in SkyCell, a cellular operator in the Indian city of Chennai in southern India, by buying out the stakes of BellSouth International and Millicom International Cellular (MIC). The foreign companies held 24.5 percent each in SkyCell.
“The selective sale of our non-core assets, including the ones in which we have a minority stake, will provide the necessary funds for Millicom to meet its commitments going forward,” said Marc Beuls, president and chief executive officer of MIC.
With this acquisition, Bharti will have a majority stake of 89.5 percent in SkyCell. It had earlier acquired a 40.5-percent stake held by Crompton Greaves. The remaining 10.5 percent is held by DSS Enterprises. SkyCell has 100,000 subscribers.
Consequent to this acquisition, Bharti is in the process of changing the company’s name to Bharti Mobilenet. Bharti will soon be introducing its brands—AirTel and Magic—in Chennai, a company statement said. Bharti’s Chairman and Group Managing Director Sunil Mittal said the group now has a dominating presence in all four Indian metros.
Bharti this week also settled its dispute with the Department of Telecom (DoT) regarding settlement of dues for the Punjab state circle, which it had acquired from J T Mobile in 1999.
