Proposal of Norwegian telecom firm Telenor to take complete ownership of its Indian unit, Telewings Communications has been cleared, the Finance Ministry said today.
Telenor currently owns 74 per cent stake in Telewings Communications, which offers telecom services in India under the Uninor brand name. The remaining 26 per cent stake is held by Lakshdeep Investments.
"The proposal of Telenor Mobile Communications AS, Norway through Telenor South Asia Investment Pte. Ltd (TSAI), Singapore has been cleared.
"The foreign parent of an Indian company, engaged in the telecom sector, proposes to increase its shareholding from 74 per cent to 100 per cent and the proposed amount of FDI is Rs 78.08 crore," Finance Ministry said.
Telenor had said its Indian unit had participated in two separate spectrum auctions to acquire radiowaves in the range of 5Mhz to 7.2 Mhz in seven circles that together represent more than half of India's population.
The firm has also announced an additional investment of Rs 500 crore towards expansion of its network and distribution infrastructure by 30 per cent.
Uninor, which has over 39 million customers in the country, offers services in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar, Maharashtra, UP East and UP West.
The company had reported an operating profit of about Rs 1,531 crore for the January-March quarter because of one-time accounting adjustment of Rs 1,660 crore related to licence fees.
