The Hinduja group's 30 per cent stake in Fascel, the Hutchison controlled cellular venture in Gujarat, is being valued at Rs 600 crore.
A senior group executive said the "the valuation is being done by a leading investment banker and is based on the company's subscriber-base and its average revenue per user potential".
Subsequently, the total cellular circle in Gujarat is now being valued at Rs 2,000 crore.
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The Hinduja group its stake in Fascel through a special purpose vehicle, IndusInd Telecom Network, wherein Hinduja TMT holds 66 per cent and Sumitomo of Japan 34 per cent. Hutchison holds 49 per cent in Fascel, the remaining 21 per cent is held by investors such as Kotak Mahindra and Usha Martin Telematics (a special purpose vehicle jointly floated by Hutchison group and Kotak Mahindra).
Currently, Fascel is the leading cellular operator in Gujarat and its brand Celforce has a subscriber base of over around 2.78 lakh in January 2002 with a market share of about 65 per cent. Fascel is expecting its cellular subscriber-base to touch three lakh by the end of the current fiscal.
Though the Hinduja group is keen to maintain its stake in Gujarat mobile circle, it has recently decided against investing further in the cellular and other telecom services segments due to uncertanities in telecom policies.
Hutchison, which is the majority partner in the Gujarat circle and has an all-India presence, is working on combining its cellular operations with those of the Essar group. This would leave the Hindujas with a minority stake of around 5-7 per cent in the merged entity.
The combined entity is also planning an initial public offering sometime next year once its consolidates all its circles, to part-fund expansion plans. Hutchison is rolling out services in circles such as Andhra Pradesh, Chennai and Karnataka as the fourth cellular operator.