Following the completion of acquisition of Tata group's 48.14 per cent stake in the GSM service provider Idea Cellular, the Aditya Birla group has reconstituted its board and appointed Kumar Mangalam Birla as the chairman.
The other members on the board are Rajashree Birla, chairperson, Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development, Sanjeev Aga, managing director, Aditya Birla Nuvo, Debu Bhattacharya, managing director, Hindalco, Saurabh Misra, director, Aditya Birla Management Corporation and CEO Ultra Tech and M R Prasanna, group executive president (legal), Aditya Birla Group.
After the completion of the deal, Aditya Birla Nuvo holds 35.7 per cent in Idea while Birla TMT Holdings, Grasim and Hindalco hold 44.9 per cent, 7.5 per cent and 10.1 per cent respectively, a company release said.
On Tuesday, the Aditya Birla group completed the acquisition of Tata group's 48.14 per cent stake in Idea. The Birlas had signed an agreement in April this year to acquire the stake for Rs 4,406 crore (Rs 44.06 billion), priced at Rs 40.50 a share, increasing its total stake in the company to increasing its stake to 98.3 per cent.
Birlas had also committed to invest around Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) in the company and add five more circles, increasing its total number of circles to 16. The company was also aggressive in increasing its subscriber base.
The Birla group had also stated that it will offload over 33 per cent to investors and was believed to be in talks with a clutch of investors.
Foreign investors like Blackstone, Carlyle and Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation were believed to be in the race, while Malaysia's state investment firm Khazanah Nasional Bhd had also evinced interest in acquiring the 33 per cent stake.
Idea was floated jointly by Tatas, Birlas and AT&T Wireless of US as Birla Tata AT&T, and subsequently AT&T exited from the venture.
Tatas had also exited from the venture in April this year, as the group wanted to focus on its CDMA business.
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