The Hutchison Essar Group of companies has completed the process Tof consolidating its mobile interests in India under a single entity, Hutchison Max Telecom Limited (HMTL). The company has stated that all requisite government and regulatory approvals and permissions for effecting the consolidation have been obtained. This has cleared the decks for the proposed initial public offering (IPO) which, according to sources, will have a size of about Rs 20 billion and will hit the markets in June. Earlier, the Foreign Investment Promotion Board had cleared Hutchison-Essar’s application to transfer the shares in various entities to HMTL. Hutchison-Essar’s various operations have completed the process of transferring the shares in HMTL in return for the issue of new shares in HMTL.
As a result, HMTL will become the holding company for all cellular operations of the Hutchison-Essar Group and all the existing shareholders will become shareholders of HMTL. Following the consolidation, Hutchison Telecommunication International Limited (HTIL) will hold 42.3 per cent stake while Essar will hold 26.42 per cent stake. The Kotak-Hutchison joint venture will hold 23 per cent while the Hindujas will own 5.11 per cent. The balance will be held by Max India.
