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Bharti's EV works out to $2530/tower: Macquarie Research (Source : CNBC-TV18 - moneycontrol.com 31dec 2007) Bharti has sold 10% of its tower business for USD 1 billion. Shubham Majumder of Macquarie Research told CNBC-TV18 that the EV per tower works out to USD 2530/tower. The final EV decision would depend on achievement on operational and financial parameters, he said. The spectrum crunch would mean higher valuations for tower business and lower for core business, he feels. He gave a target price for Bharti at Rs 1400; Rs 250 from its tower business. His target price for Reliance Communications is at Rs 865; but he does not take into account the company’s GSM entry. More

Bharti Airtel declines on spectrum fears (The Hindu Business Line 14th Dec 2007) Bharti Airtel was the biggest loser among the 30 Sensex stocks on Thursday due to spectrum fears. There are concerns now that Bharti will be getting the shorter end of the additional spectrum. It was down 6.24 per cent to close the day at Rs 987.80 on the Bombay Stock Exchange and by 6.67 per cent on the National Stock Exchange to close at Rs 988. Analysts say that there is a lot of uncertainty at the moment regarding the whole spectrum issue. The TDSAT interim order is largely negative for all big GSM players. But it’s particularly negative for Bharti Airtel as it allowed Government to allocate spectrum to new players. . These tighter subscriber norms mean that Bharti will not be getting any additional spectrum for 2G mobile for years. Less spectrum would also mean extra capital expenditure to accommodate the huge growth of subscribers, says analysts tracking the telecom sector. S&P rates Bharti Airt...

How pooling can unlock value for telcos (The Hindu Business Line 13th Dec 2007) The coming together of Bharti Infratel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular to form an independent tower company called Indus Towers, is a logical way forward for passive infrastructure sharing by cellular operators, in a scenario of falling ... More PM wants transparency in spectrum allocation (The Hindu Business Line 13th Dec 2007) The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, has said that the spectrum policy should be fair, transparent, equitable and one that does not lose sight of the revenue earning potential to the Government. Addressing the inaugural session of the Telecom India Summit 2007 here on Wednesday, the Prime Minister said, “The policy regime for making spectrum available should be fair, and forward looking. It should not create entry barriers to newcomers or barriers to the continued growth of the sector. At the same time, the revenue potential to the government must not be lost sight of. In the final...

TDSAT order on spectrum setback for GSM players (Moneycontrol.com 12th Dec 2007)According to NewsWire18 reports, Government Counsel has said that it will favourably consider Tata's application for spectrum. They will allot spectrum to all eligible participants. But the counsel has said that there will be no spectrum allotment over 6.2 MHz until the panel report comes out. TDSAT has set January 9 as the next date for hearing on the COAI spectrum petition. ... Read more

Bharti offers Rs 2,650 cr for pan-India GSM spectrum (The Hindu Business Line 11th Dec 2007) With the Ministry of Communications in no mood to relax the subscriber-linked spectrum allocation criteria any further, GSM operator Bharti Airtel on Monday fired a fresh salvo and told the Government that it was willing to participate in an auction. The company has offered Rs 2,650 crore as the initial bid amount for 4.4 Mhz of pan-India GSM spectrum. This amount is Rs 1,000 crore higher than what the Government has asked Reliance Communication to pay for country-wide GSM licence. Industry sources indicated that other GSM operators and new players in favour of auction may put in counter bids over the next few days, which could force the Government to take a re-look at the option to auction spectrum instead of allocating it based on the number of subscribers. Ericsson declines Nokia portion in BSNL deal (The Hindu Business Line 11th Dec 2007) Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd’s controversial GSM proje...

VSNL plans to merge broadband arm with self (The Hindu Busienss Line 10th Dec 2007)VSNL has informed the BSE that the board of directors has approved the proposed merger of VSNL Broadband Ltd (VBL), a wholly owned subsidiary, with the company. Further steps will be initiated in due course. Truce eludes telecom (The Hindu Busienss Line 10th Dec 2007) The Communication Minister, Andimuthu Raja, knows exactly what to do when he has a sore throat — eat spicy, home-cooked crab. But he has a bigger pain these days — an aggravated and prolonged battle for spectrum between GSM and CDMA mobile operators — for which he and his officials in the Department of Telecom are finding it tough to cook up a solution. RCom slams Bharti, Vodafone claims on spectrum (The Hindu Busienss Line 10th Dec 2007) Reliance Communications has slammed the claims made by GSM operators Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar before the spectrum panel set up by the Government. In a point-by-point rebuttal, RCom told the ch...

Q: Idea went into a bit of a shell after its numbers. But yesterday was an extremely strong day?--> A: CNBC-TV18's stocks editor, Udayan Mukherjee - It was but my guess is looking at valuations that this is more to do with Idea’s price and the fact that it comes into the Nifty on the December 12, 2007. So this might be like we saw with Unitech earlier, a bit of a pre-Index inclusion pop, which is happening in Idea. It’s a Rs 130 stock so it’s a handy price to trade around in for the punter and that’s why it’s going up. If one just looks at the reality on the ground Bharti is sulking for the last many weeks, because of the spectrum issues and the same spectrum issues are actually very negative for Idea as well. ARPU’s are going down and Idea can stand to lose quite a bit if the realizations and margins come off significantly in the market. Idea’s valuations are at a slight premium to Bharti now, even after the correction and at the same level as Reliance Communications (R Com)...