Airtel board nod to Tata Tele mobile business takeover

Mumbai, Dec 20 : Bharti Airtel on Wednesday approved the takeover of consumer mobile business of Tata Teleservices, a regulatory filing said here.

"The Board of Directors in a meeting held on December 19 has approved composite scheme of arrangement between Tata Teleservices, Bharti Airtel and Bharti Hexacon and their respective shareholders and creditors," the BSE filing said.

Bharti Airtel and Tata in October announced they have entered into an understanding to merge Consumer Mobile Businesses (CMB) of Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Ltd (TTML) into Bharti Airtel.

The merger is being done on a debt-free cash-free basis, except for Bharti Airtel assuming a small portion of the unpaid spectrum liability of Tata's towards DoT, which is to be paid on deferred basis, the joint statement added.

As part of the agreement, Bharti Airtel will absorb Consumer Mobile Businesses (CMB) of TTSL and TTML across the country in 19 circles (17 under TTSL and two under TTML).

Turnover of Tata Teleservices during 2016-17 was Rs 7,366 crore.