Airtel & Telenor Merger

2. Airtel Merging With Telenor
Group Members :-
Anmol Chaturvedi
Abhijith H
Abhishek Hiremath

4.  Largest provider of mobile telephony and 2nd largest provider of fixed
telephony.
 Also a provider of broadband & subscription services.
 Bharti Airtel Limited is part of Bharti Enterprises and is headed by Sunil
Bharti Mittal.
 Airtel is the first Indian telecom service provider to achieve Cisco Gold
Certification.
 It also acts as a carrier for national and international long distance
communication services.
 The company has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, with a
connection to Singapore.
 As of September 2016, Airtel has 255.73 million subscribers with a market
share of 24.7% in the Indian telephony market. Airtel was named India's
second most valuable brand in the first ever Brands ranking by Millward
Brown and WPP plc.

6.  Telenor (India) Communications Private Limited, formerly known as Uninor,
was an Indian mobile network operator.
 The company Unitech Wireless Limited, a subsidiary of Unitech Group, was
incorporated in 2008.
 The same year, the company was awarded wireless services licences for all
22 telecom circles.
 Subsequently, Unitech Group and Telenor Group agreed to enter a joint
venture where Telenor would inject fresh equity investments of ₹61.35 billion
into Unitech Wireless to take a majority stake in the company.
 The company was a wholly owned subsidiary of Norwegian
telecommunications company Telenor Group. On 2 February 2012, the
Supreme Court of India cancelled 122 licenses of 22 mobile operators,
including Uninor.
 In July 2012, Uninor decided to gradually scale down operations in 4
telecom circles - Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa and Tamil Nadu.
 In October 2012, the two companies signed an agreement under which
Unitech transferred Uninor assets to Telenor and exited the joint venture.
 On 23rd February 2017, Telenor India was acquired by Bharti Airtel.

7. +
Telenor Bharti Airtel

8. Bharti Airtel-Telenor deal: 5 reasons why it
had to happen
1.The spectrum gain
The defining feature of Bharti Airtel's acquisition is spectrum. Spectrum matters more than
anything else for Bharti Airtel in this deal. Telenor will give Bharti Airtel an additional 43.4
MHz spectrum in the 1800 MHz band. This will boost Airtel's already robust spectrum kitty.
2. The 4G edge
The spectrum gain from Telenor acquisition will add critical value to the company when
fast data has come to rule the Indian telecom market. Bharti Airtel is rolling out its 4G
services in 1,800 MHz band and 2,100Mhz band. Telenor's 43.4 MHz spectrum in the 1800
MHz band will certainly power Bharti Airtel's 4G services.
3. The subscriber base
The Telenor acquisition will give Bharti Airtel 52.5 million subscribers. This will be a
significant addition to Bharti Airtel's 269 million subscriber base in the country, especially
when Vodafone’s 205 million subscribers and Idea's 190 million add up to a big challenge
to the company, not to forget Reliance Jio making biggest subscriber gains in recent
months.

9. Continuation…
4. Most-valued footprint
Telenor's operations will empower Bharti Airtel in India's most densely
populated regions. Telenor has operations in seven circles: Andhra Pradesh,
Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, UP (East), UP (West) and Assam. All these regions
are now crucial for telecom companies as they are not only densely populated
but also hold vast potential as mobile services and infrastructure spread in the
underserved interiors of India at a rapid pace.
5. Beating the rivals
Early this month, there were reports about Telenor looking to merge its India
operations with Reliance Communications. Bharti Airtel's swift swoop on
Telenor has given it an edge over its rivals as Telenor would have been bought
by Bharti Airtel's rivals sooner or later due to growing consolidation after
Reliance Jio's entry.

10. Advantage Of
 The takeover would fortify Bharti against competition like Jio and also
the proposed Vodafone-Idea merger.
 As part of the agreement, Bharti will acquire Telenor India’s running
operations in seven circles — Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra,
Gujarat, UP (East), UP (West) and Assam. These circles represent a high
population concentration and, therefore, offer a high potential for
growth.
 The acquisition will cross the 50-per cent revenue market share
threshold in the Bihar circle, which would require trimming 9.2 per
cent of Telenor’s revenue.
 Some analysts said higher customer base through acquisition is not
expected to automatically translate into increase in revenues for
Bharti as most of the Telenor users are low income customers.

11. Tale Of
 Telenor had signed a JV with Unitech in 2009 and it invested Rs
6,135 crore through equity and a little over Rs8,000 crore in debt.
 “From Telenor’s perspective it must be disappointing to exit the
market because they have significant presence in South Asia, in
Pakistan and Bangladesh,”
 According to sources, there will be downsizing of Telenor India’s
4,000 employees, including 700 permanent ones. Bharti has around
19,000 employees, and there could be overlaps in roles.
 In calendar year 2016, Telenor India's total revenues grew 7.9 per
cent to Norwegian Krone 6 billion (Rs4,700 crore). Its earnings
before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation stood at
Norwegian Krone 434 million (Rs340 crore) against a loss of
Norwegian Krone 47 million in 2015. However, Telenor took an
impairment loss and write-downs in its India operation of
Norwegian Krone 7.4 billion (Rs5,800 crore) in 2016.