ABTL scales down $640 million deal with Providence Equity

Aditya Birla Telecom Limited (ABTL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Idea Cellular, has scaled down its deal with US-based private equity major Providence Equity Partners. Against the earlier agreement to sell 20 per cent stake for $640 million, ABTL has offloaded 16.14 per cent stake for around $428 million as the Foreign Investment Promotion Board gave only partial approval. Idea Cellular had earlier stated that the funds raised will be used for network rollout and operations of ABTL, which has a telecom licence in Bihar.