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Sahara Group Picks Up 11.7% Stake in S Tel

By Madhav A Chanchani

  • 06 May 2009

Subroto Roy's Sahara Group has picked up an 11.7% stake in S Tel, a Chennai-based company holding startup spectrum in six states. The stake has been picked up through group entity Sahara India Investment Corp, reports Economic Times.

Though the deal size is not known, it could be around Rs 260 crore if one takes valuation of S Tel in it's recent deal with Bahrain Telecom and Millennium Private Equity. Last week reports suggested that maverick investor C Sivasankaran is in talks to pick up a stake in S Tel.

It was earlier believed that S Tel promoter firms, Skycity Foundations and Mauritius-based Telecom Investments, hold the remaining 51% stake in the firm. S Tel directors are, as mentioned on the company website, S Natarajan, Santhosh Robert and Padmavathy Suresh.

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A Business Standard report adds that S Tel's share capital has increased from Rs 18 crore to Rs138 crore from December 2, 2008. At the time of applying for license, the company had share capital of Rs 18 crore subscribed by Skycity and Telecom Investments in ratio of 51:49.

Earlier this year, S Tel sold a 49% stake to Gulf-based Bahrain Telecom and Millennium Private Equity combine for $225 million. S Tel has unified access services licences (UASL) and spectrum to operate in six Indian states - Bihar, Orissa, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, North East and Assam. The company can also provide broadband services across the country as it has a Category A ISP license.

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Equity Structure Changes in other Telcos

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Quoting a report by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Business Standard says that share capital of Loop Telecom has increased from Rs 130.65 crore to Rs 307.62 crore. The initial stakeholders in Loop were BPL Mobile Communications and BPL Communications. Of the additional share capital, Rs 73.72 crore was invested by Capital Global Ltd.

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Shyam-Sistema's share capital has increased by Rs 2,000 crore to Rs 2,455.96 crore after Russian firm has increased its stake from 10% to 72%.

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The share capital of Swan Telecom, in which UAE's Etisalat bought stake, has increased by Rs 3,500 crore after share subscription by the latter. Tiger Trustees and Reliance Telecom were equity holders in Swan when it applied for license. Later Reliance divested its stake, after which stake was held by Tiger Trustees and Delphi Investment. Dynamix Balwas Infrastructure also holds preferential shares in the company. Another shareholder is Genex Exim Ventures.

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