Aditya Birla group-owned Idea Cellular plans to offload 33.3 per cent stake to a clutch of investors. The deal is expected to be made public soon.
According to industry sources, a deal may be signed by early next week.
The sale price is slated to be around Rs 40 per share, the price at which it had acquired 49 per cent stake from former joint venture partner, the Tatas. However, this could not be confirmed.
The names of the foreign investors could not be ascertained at this point, but sources said that private equity investors like Blackstone, Carlyle and Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation were in the race. Malaysia's state investment firm Khazanah Nasional Bhd had also evinced interest in the company.
"The stake is being sold to more than one equity investor, at least two, but their names and the percentage of stake each investor is not known," they said.
When contacted, Idea Cellular officials declined to comment, while Birla top brasses were not reachable.
In April this year, the Birla group had acquired 48.12 per cent stake in Idea Cellular for Rs 4,406 crore or Rs 44.06 billion (Rs 40.50 a share), increasing its stake to 98 per cent.
The Birlas has acquired 33.14 per cent through Birla TMT Holdings and 15 per cent through Aditya Birla Nuvo and its subsidiaries.
Idea was floated jointly by Tatas, Birlas and AT&T Wireless of US as Birla Tata AT&T, and subsequently AT&T and Tatas exited from the venture.
The group is expected to spend Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) and five more circles, increasing its total number of circles to 16. The company was also aggressive in increasing its subscriber base.
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