Monday, Apr 30, 2012
NEW DELHI (Dow Jones)--Bahrain Telecommunications Co. BSC (BATELCO.BH) is unlikely to participate in India's forthcoming bandwidth auctions but may re-enter the country by investing in an existing company, its group chief executive said.
Bahrain Telecommunications is keen to invest in "existing operators and not start up companies," Group Chief Executive Shaikh Mohamed bin Isa Al Khalifa said in an email to Dow Jones Newswires.
He however didn't specify if Batelco is in talks with any Indian telecom operator.
Bahrain Telecommunications, popularly known as Batelco, earlier in February decided to exit India by selling its 42.7% stake in local telecom company - S Tel Pvt. Ltd. - to its Indian partner Sky City Foundation. The sale followed India's Supreme Court's order earlier that month scrapping 122 telecom licenses issued January 2008, including six of S Tel's, saying the process followed was flawed and the permits given were illegal.
India's apex court then April 24 directed the government to hold auctions by Aug. 31 to reallocate bandwidth, including those to be surrendered by affected operators. It allowed those operators to continue operations till Sept. 7, an extension from the earlier June 2 deadline. S Tel, however - soon after the court order in February - said it is closing down its operations.
Batelco, Bahrain's largest telecommunications company, last week, said its overseas users declined by about 40%, largely due to an adjustment for the exclusion of its India operations.
-By R.Jai Krishna, Dow Jones Newswires, +91.11.4356.3333; krishna.jai@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
30-04-12 0434GMT
