Indian telecommunications operator Reliance Communications extended the exclusivity period by two months for talks with rival Aircel to consider the potential merger of operations.
Reliance entered into merger talks with Aircel shareholders Maxis Communications and Sindya Securities and Investments late last year. The parties initially agreed to a 90-day exclusivity period. Reliance said negotiations with Aircel’s owners are making good progress, however, the telco noted the negotiations are nonbinding. Reliance said the firms will continue negotiations “to consider the potential combination of the Indian wireless business of Reliance Communications and Aircel and mutually derive the expected substantial benefits of in-country consolidation, including [operating expense] and [capital expense] synergies and revenue enhancement.”
At the end of September 2015, Reliance had 110.4 million subscribers and a market share of over 11%, according to official figures. Aircel had nearly 84 million customers, representing 8.4% market share.
China Telecom annual profits grow 13.4%
In other APAC news, China Telecom reported a net profit of 20.05 billion yuan ($3.07 billion) for full year 2015, an increase of 13.4% year-over-year. The telco attributed the sharp growth to a one-off gain from the sale of telecom towers and related assets last year.
Revenues grew 2.1% year-over-year to 331.20 billion yuan, mainly fueled by its mobile business, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization fell 0.8% to 94.11 billion yuan.
China Telecom finished the year with 58.46 million LTE customers, or more than a quarter of its total mobile subscriber base of nearly 200 million customers.
