In the latest round of consolidation, Hutchison-Essar has acquired BPL Mobile’s wireless businesses in a deal valued at $1 billion. Hutchison-Essar will fund the acquisition through $500 million in cash and will assume $500 million of BPL’s debt. The deal, India’s largest domestic acquisition, comes days after Rajeev Chandrasekhar, BPL’s chairman, had reached an out-ofcourt settlement in a family dispute over control of the south Indian group’s assets. The move will create India’s third largest cellular company. The merged entity will have a market share to rival BTVL and Reliance Infocomm. The deal gives HutchisonEssar a presence in a majority of India’s telecom circles and will allow it to establish a national footprint. In Mumbai, where both Hutchison-Essar and BPL have a presence, the enlarged entity gains a dominant position which analysts say is short of the regulatory ceiling. Hutchison-Essar now has 10 million subscribers, equal to that of Reliance and close on the heels of Bharti with 12 million.
