The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has given its final nod to the amalgamation of Tata Teleservices with Bharti Airtel, as per an exchange filing.
The amalgamation is subject to the approval of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
“Hon’ble National Company Law Tribunal, New Delhi, Principal Bench, vide its order dated January 17, 2019, has sanctioned the composite scheme of arrangement between Tata Teleservices Limited, Bharti Airtel Limited and Bharti Hexacom Limited and their respective shareholders and creditors,” said Bharti Airtel said in a BSE filing.
Bharti Hexacom is Bharti Airtel’s subsidiary.
In October 2017, debt-ridden Tata Teleservices announced its merger with Bharti Airtel. The deal is undertaken on a no-debt, no-cash basis, suggesting that Airtel would not take over any of the debt worth Rs 40,000 crore of Tata Teleservices and neither would they be paying any cash.
As mentioned in the deal, Bharti Airtel will amalgamate the Tata consumer mobile business operations spread across 19 telecom circles (17 under Tata Teleservices Ltd and two under Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd).
It will also be assuming a small portion of the unpaid liability owned by Tata towards DoT, which is to be paid on deferred basis, the statement added.
The amalgamation will strengthen Bharti Airtel’s spectrum pool with vital additional 178.5 MHz spectrum in 1800, 2100 and 850 MHz bands, all widely used for 4G.
