Vodafone Group May Sell Its Stake in Bharti Airtel Under New Rules

UK-based Vodafone Group will sell its 4.4 percent stake in Bharti Airtel if rules no longer permit telecom operators to keep share in competitors, a top executive of Vodafone India said.

In a letter to the telecom ministry last year, Vodafone had said it holds 4.4 percent stake indirectly in Bharti.

"The share is not with us, it's with Vodafone Group so we really don't know... I can only say if the rules don't allow us to keep it then we will not keep it. We are not going to sell the Indian operations to hold 4.4 percent in Bharti," Vodafone India MD and CEO Marten Pieters told PTI.

He said the company will abide by the rules and regulations of the country and if the rules say that Vodafone can no longer own the stake, than it (Vodafone Group) will have to find a buyer.

The new rules bar the holding of stake in competitors, with both Vodafone India (a subsidiary of the UK-based group) and Bharti Airtel offering telecom services in India.

Vodafone has to sell its entire stake in Airtel under the new norms issued by government that bars a telecom operator from holding any kind of stake in competition under Unified Licences (UL).

(Also see: Bharti has no intention to buy back Vodafone stake in Airtel: Sunil Mittal)

Vodafone and Airtel currently operate on Unified Access Service Licence (UASL) licence or 2G licences, under which telecom companies are permitted to hold up to 9.9 percent stake in other firms.

However, as per the new rules, telecom service providers operating under previous licences will have to migrate to new licences on expiry of their permits and sell stakes held by them in any rival within a year of getting UL.

Vodafone has applied for UL in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.