There is this huge debate in the media over IDEA Cellular and Spice Telecom. There are three versions. 1) IDEA Cellular wants to pick up Spice Telecom. 2) Telekom Malaysia, which has a 49% stake in Spice Telecom wants to merge operations with IDEA 3) the last one talks of IDEA, Spice and Reliance Telecom (the GSM wing of Reliance Communications) joining hands to form a nation-wide network.
Well, the first seems to be most likely. With IDEA looking to consolidate its operation in the country, Spice would provide it a perfect fit. After all, IDEA has 14.56 million subscribers across 11 circles. Plus it has also got the licence for Mumbai and Bihar. Spice with 2.81 million subscribers in Punjab and Karnataka would be a perfect fit. But, what happens to Telekom Malaysia? Does that mean that IDEA will make way for TM in the combined entity? Is BK Modi finally getting out of telecom? He had sold off the Kolkata licence to Bharti years ago. Since then he has stuck on with these two circles.
As far as the second option is concerned, that will depend entirely on what IDEA wants to do. But, one must remember that Aditya Birla knows the Malaysians very well. After all, he had a palm oil venture there for years. In case that happens, the loser could well be Modi.
The last option is more in the realm of dreams. Yes, logically that is a possibility. In fact in the early days of telecom, there was a proposal between BPL and Bharti to joins hands to beat the competition. Nothing happened and Bharti went way ahead by acquiring other operators. Well, if Anil Ambani is looking to get back into GSM, Spice would be a great way to get back. After all, Karnataka and Punjab would provide him a great launchpad for future growth.
That may after all be the way to go.
No comments:
Post a Comment