Essar acquires BPL mobile unit in a billion dollar deal

BPL group has confirmed that they have sold a controlling stake in their mobile services firm to the Essar group. The deal is worth more than a billion US Dollars and it involves the sixth largest mobile company in India. The deal also happens to be THE biggest one for the India mobile industry until now. Essar also owns part of the local mobile operations of Hutchison Whampoa.

The company is now expected to merge the operations of both its mobile operations and those of the Hong Kong telecoms giant. Recent trends in this industry have shown that the smaller players in the market are selling out to bigger players to result in a rather consolidated market with few players trying to catch the attention of the mobile users around the world.

BPL Mobile serves 2.63 million users, or 4.5 percent of one of the fastest growing mobile markets in Asia. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, chief executive of BPL Mobile said that it is an all-cash deal. He owns majority of the shares in the combination. The remaining part of the company is also being sold to the Essar Teleholdings Ltd. which is the mobile services arm of the steel-to-shipping group.