Maxis to infuse Rs.5,000 Crore in Aircel
In order to continue its refinancing plan for its Indian mobile telephony unit Aircel, the Malaysian telecom company Maxis Communications will reportedly infuse up to $900 million (over Rs.5,000 crore) in Aircel's fresh equity.
Aircel will bring the capital through a proposed sale of broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum used for running 4G services on TD-LTE technology. Aircel has won the spectrum in 2010 in 8 circles for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) after paying Rs.4,500 crore as fees.
Reliable sources informed that lenders, led mainly by the State Bank of India (SBI), have already started working on a new tenure and cost for Aircel's $3.5-billion (nearly Rs.20,000-crore) debt.
It is worth noticing here that Maxis owns 74% stake, while the local partner including Reddys of Apollo Hospitals, keep the rest in Aircel. The 74-per cent stake includes over 60 million Aircel subscribers.
Market watchers believe that selling BWA licence could prove as a setback for Aircel as the mobile operator are focussing more on mobile Internet business these days and without 4G, Aircel will have to rely on 2G and 3G for its future growth in mobile data business.
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