PRESS RELEASE
Mumbai, June 25, 2004 - Hutchison Essar announced the acquisition of 100% of Aircel Limited and Aircel Cellular Limited (Together 'Aircel') from Sterling Infotech Limited.
Aircel operates GSM 900 cellular licenses in the city of Chennai and the state of Tamil Nadu. Aircel had over 1.1 million subscribers as on May 31, 2004.
The acquisition is subject to approvals from the relevant authorities. Hutchison Essar already operates a GSM 1800 license in the city of Chennai and the parties are in the process of making the necessary application to seek approval from the Department of Telecom. This will be the first intra circle merger transaction since the announcement of the intra circle merger guidelines.
On the occasion of this announcement, Ravi Ruia, Vice Chairman, Essar Group said, "Our joint venture with Hutchison goes back over four years. We have found it a highly professional relationship and are delighted to extend it to a larger footprint."
Dennis Lui, Group Managing Director, Hutchison Telecom, said, "We have been in Indian telecom since 1994 and this step marks a continuation of our commitment to the Indian telecom market. We welcome the subscribers and employees of Aircel into the Hutchison Essar fold. We have grown from a single circle operation in Mumbai to now fourteen licence areas and look forward to playing a significant role in India's telecom growth."
Commenting on this acquisition Mr. C. Sivasankaran of Sterling Infotech Group said, "The acquisition of the mobility market leader in Tamil Nadu will provide significant impetus to Hutchison Essar to strive for leadership position in the Indian mobility space. Post acquisition, the Sterling Infotech Group will continue with its focus on various wireless business initiatives including GSM businesses in North and East India with specific thrust on penetrating rural markets."
The Sterling Infotech Group was advised by ING Vysya Investment Bank, and Hutchison Essar were advised by Kotak Investment Banking and Enam Financial Consultants.
This press release is for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer or invitation to subscribe for or purchase any securities nor is it calculated to invite any such offer or invitation. In particular, this press release is not an offer of securities for sale in Hong Kong, the United States or elsewhere. Securities may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration. Any public offering of securities to be made in the United States would be made by means of a prospectus that may be obtained from the issuer or selling security holder and that would contain detailed information about the company and management, as well as financial statements.
For more information, please contact:
| Kavita Nair Hutchison Max Telecom Orange: 98200 18435 Tel: 022 - 56645139 Email: kavita.nair@orange.co.in www.orange.co.in |
Amrit Singh Deo / Sandhya Sadananda Genesis Public Relations Orange: 98202 11064/ 98205 41788 Tel: 022 - 5664 5220 / 5660 3027 Email: amrit.deo@orange.co.in ssadananda@genesispr.com |
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