Unitech today said its telecom venture had earmarked a capital expenditure of Rs 10,000 crore for the next three years to roll out its services across the country.
Unitech Wireless, the 32.75:67.25 telecom joint venture between Unitech and Norwegian telco Telenor, will raise its headcount by over three-fold to 1,800 in the current fiscal.
“We have earmarked Rs 10,000 crore capex for Unitech Wireless for the next three years to roll out its services,” Unitech MD Sanjay Chandra told reporters after an extraordinary general meeting here.
Of the total capex, Rs 6,600 crore would be the equity base from the partners, while the balance would be debt, he added.
“We have already infused our portion of capital. Now, whatever money will come, it will be from Telenor,” Chandra said.
Telenor would inject a total of Rs 6,120 crore into Unitech Wireless, resulting in its 67.25 per cent holding in the company. Last month, it had completed the acquisition for a 49 per cent stake after paying Rs 1,130 crore in the second tranche for a further 15.5 per cent stake in the company. Asked about the strength of Unitech Wireless’ workforce, Chandra said the telecom firm would increase the headcount to 1,800 people by the end of this financial year from the existing 500. Telenor ASA has expressed its intention to raise the stake to 74 per cent — the permissible foreign investment limit in an Indian telecom firm.
The proposal is currently under Foreign Investment Promotion Board’s (FIPB’s) discussion. By the end of this year, Unitech Wireless plans to launch GSM-based mobile telephony services starting from the first five circles of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala where it has got spectrum. The company has already given various contracts for providing support infrastructures to French telecommunication firm Alcatel-Lucent, Chinese telecom network equipment major Huawei Technologies and domestic IT giant Wipro.
