The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is examining the legal tenability of the clauses regarding the shareholding pattern in the Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) that the department had issued for the auction of broadband wireless access spectrum in 2010. DoT has sought an opinion from its legal cell for the same.
According to the NIA, the successful bidder should hold a minimum of 26 per cent equity in the company, directly or indirectly. DoT is seeking clarity on whether the licensee is required to maintain the shareholding structure which it had submitted at the time of acquiring the licence for the entire period of the licence term. The issue came up before DoT, following Qualcomm?s communication to the department seeking approval for selling its stake to Bharti Airtel. While Qualcomm had acquired the spectrum in 2010, it later sold the BWA spectrum to Bharti Airtel.
Besides Qualcomm, another player, Augere Wireless, which had also won 20 MHz of BWA spectrum in Madhya Pradesh had sold off its stake to Bharti Airtel. Qualcomm Asia Pacific had a 74 per cent stake in the venture and then sold its stake to Bharti Airtel. In a similar deal, Reliance Industries too acquired 95 per cent stake in Himachal Futuristic Communications Limited, which had acquired BWA spectrum through auction.
According to the NIA issued in 2010, the licensee may, under intimation to licensor (DoT), replace a promoter or promoters by another, as stipulated, in case the Indian promoter acquired the foreign promoter?s stake and it may also transfer equity between Indian promoters or persons including Indian employees of the company.
