Essar bids for Hutchison Whampoa stake in Hutchison Essar

Essar bids for Hutchison Whampoa stake in Hutchison Essar

Reliance and Vodafone are two telecom giants who have shown interest in acquiring a stake in Hutch mobile service provider in India.

However, they might fail now that India’s Essar group itself has made an offer to buy Hutchison Whampoa’s 67 percent stake in Hutchison Essar.

The company is worth around $17-$18 billion and the Essar offer was made through investment bankers Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns.

They are now likely to meet senior Hutchison officials in Hong Kong on Tuesday.

Essar already holds a 33% stake in the company and they have received a line of credit of about $10 billion from Morgan Stanley and Citibank.

The Economic Times newspaper reported: “No formal bids have been placed by anybody except Essar. The companies want to do proper due diligence and are waiting for Hutchison to open its books.”