VCCircle

Anil Ambani has for the first time gone on record on the Hutch acquisition bid. Addressing a press conference in Mumbai on the group company FLAG Telecom's new initiatives, Ambani digressed for a while on his company's plans to acquire Hutchison Essar. I watched the press conference on CNBC TV18 live. Key points below:

--Reliance Communications is contstantly looking at opportunities to grow which will include both organic and inorganic opportunities. The plans to bid for Hutch is one such opportunity.

--Reliance has received funding commitments and line of credit from global banks to fund any corporate moves from our side.

--There is no certainty that the deal will go through.

--Hutch is only one of the ways to create sustainable value for the company.

--The private equity funds who are supporting the bid include the top ten funds in the world.

--On valuation - "We have absolute clarity on where value creation starts and value creation ends." (Translation: They know how much price to pay for Hutch, and the $21 billion reportedly demanded by Hutch could be higher.)

--On how do they plan to merge Hutch if they succeed in acquisition: "We will comply with all the department of telecom guidelines on the merger and acquisition".

--There are no plans currently to offload any stake in Reliance Communications