Tikona co- founder sends legal notice to Airtel

It seems that India's largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel has to face hurdle while acquiring Tikona 4G business, as Rajesh Tiwari a minority shareholder of the latter has sent a legal notice to the telco, Business Standard reported.

"The Sunil Mittal-led company has reportedly received a legal notice from Tikona's Co-Founder and Minority Shareholder, Rajesh Tiwari, asking for a stay on the deal," the report said.

"Tiwari, with a 2.5 percent stake in the Tikona Trust, is not happy about the waterfall arrangement or the money slated to be given to shareholders at the time of the deal," it further said.

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Airtel has recently announced that it will acquire Tikona's 4G Business including the Broadband Wireless Access ("BWA") spectrum and 350 sites, in five telecom circles.

Tikona currently has 20 MHz spectrum in the 2300 MHz band in Gujarat, UP (East), UP (West), Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh circles.

"Bharti Airtel shall acquire the 4G business of Tikona" for "approximately Rs. 1,600 crore for the transaction", the company said in a regulatory filing.

Post completion of the deal, Airtel will have 30 MHz in the 2300 MHz band in 13 circles giving it advantage to handle the surging data demand.

Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO (India & South Asia), Bharti Airtel, said, "Airtel's continued focus on strengthening its 4G capabilities across multiple spectrum bands will be complemented with the BWA spectrum acquisition from Tikona. We believe that combining our capacities in TD-LTE and FD-LTE will further bolster our network, and help us provide unmatched high-speed wireless broadband experience to our customers. We remain committed to our vision of leading India's digital revolution by offering world-class and affordable telecom services through a robust spectrum portfolio spread across multiple bands."

However, the acquisition is subject to requisite regulatory approvals.

The announcement comes after, country's second largest telco, Vodafone announced its merger plans with Idea Cellular in which the company will own 45.1 percent of the new company and the Aditya Birla Group -led Idea will have own 26.0 percent.