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Press Trust of India
July 1, 2010 (New Delhi)

Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Communications on Thursday announced acquisition of Digicable, the country's largest cable TV service provider, in an all-stock deal.

The board of RCOM approved the proposal for the acquisition in a meeting held today, the company said in a statement, but did not disclose the value of the deal.

The fresh acquisition of the company comes within days of it announcement to merge its telecom tower business with GTL infrastructure in a Rs 50,000 crore deal.

The new entity named "Reliance DigiCom" will integrate RCOM's DTH, IPTV and Retail broadband operations, with Digicable.

The deal would create Asia's largest and the world's fifth largest entity offering full-suite of Digital TV, ultra high-speed broadband and voice services.

Commenting on the acquisition, RCOM Chairman Anil Ambani said: "the Digital TV and Broadband space is poised for similar explosive growth in the years ahead.

"With this game changing move, we hope to lead the next revolution in digital home entertainment in India, by offering a world class TV experience and ultra high speed broadband capability to a billion people."

Established in August 2007, Digicable is one of the largest Cable TV service providers in the country. The company is promoted by Jagjit Singh Kohli along with Yogesh Shah.

Kohli has been a pioneer in Cable TV and Broadcasting industry with several path-breaking achievements to his credit.

Reliance Digicom will have combined subscriber base of 11 million homes, the company said.

Mumbai June 23, 2010, 0:47 IST
Business Standard

Reliance Communications (RCom) is in talks with Hyderabad-based Altruist Technologies to create an open source network to allow its 105 million wireless subscribers (GSM and CDMA networks) to create their own content for mobile devices.

Initially, RCom users will be able to create their own caller tunes and ringtones by uploading the content through RCom’s web interface.

The technology developed by Altruist will enable the customer content to be edited, linked and activated on the user’s mobile connection. RCom sees major utilisation of this technology to expand its caller tune and ringtone catalogue. It currently acquires its musical content through licensing agreements with various content providers in India and abroad. It has a vast music library, with over 350,000 caller tunes and ringtones. This alliance will allow RCom to acquire user-generated mobile content on a large scale without investing in content acquisition costs.

When asked, an RCom spokesperson confirmed the company was finalising an alliance with Altruist but declined to give details. RCom, confirmed sources from within the company, is expected to save nearly 15 per cent in content acquisition costs on an annualised basis and expects over 100,000 customers to use this service every month.

By the end of the current financial year, the company expects over a million users across its CDMA and GSM networks, where the critical adoption would come from Tier-II and Tier-III towns, with a revenue upside of over Rs 250 crore over the next five years.

Altruist will create a technological bandwidth to be deployed across GSM and CDMA networks and will be integrated with RCom’s pan-India telecom backbone. Sources said Altruist raced ahead of China’s Huawei Technologies, believed to also be in the contest for this alliance. Analysts estimate the alliance to be valued at around Rs 300 crore.

This move, analysts believe, is in line with RCom’s overall business strategy to create unique and innovative services. Over the past few months, the company has offered value-added services such as SMS-based novels, mobile commerce transactions through a strategic tie-up with Atom Technologies, live streaming of cricket matches on mobiles, Antakshari services on mobiles and a blue-collar job search service.

Reliance Communications starts hiring top brass before Reliance Industries Limited entry
Times News Network, Jun 22, 2010, 01.07am IST

The country’s second-largest telecom company by subscribers, Reliance Communications (RCOM), has hired over half a dozen senior employees to cater to its wireless business. RCOM has not just poached from other telcos to fortify its management structure, it has also recruited senior executives just before elder brother Mukesh Ambani’s telecom venture gets into the hiring mode.

Reliance Industries’ Rs 4,800-crore Infotel buy has created a buzz in the telecom industry, with mid- to senior-level management cadre from various telecom companies expecting a call from head hunters. In a bid to put a more efficient team in place to run its CDMA and GSM platforms, and to provide the edge to its 3G services which will be rolled out soon, RCOM has picked up some key people from the industry.

Sitapathy Chavali, earlier with Vodafone Essar, has joined as Wireless CTO. An expert in 3G and BWA, Chavali was earlier with Idea Cellular and with Lucent Technologies (US). Ex-Bharti Airtel executive Nagesh Rajanna has taken up the post of national sales and distribution head. Prior to joining RCOM, Rajanna was with Future Generali. Both have joined RCOM this month.

Earlier in April, Anuraj Prashar was poached from Airtel, where he was national head of the fraud prevention unit, while Naresh Gupta moved from Vodafone Essar at the start of the year, where he was director till November 2009.

As Reliance Communications begins the journey towards 200 million customers, the company is adopting a multi-pronged strategy.

June 2, 2010, 04.26 am IST
Times News Network

When the Ambani brothers announced the scrapping of their non-compete agreement, TOI had predicted that Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications was likely to get outside investment soon. Now, it is learnt that UAE-based telecom major Etisalat is in talks to buy a 25% stake in the company. According to market sources, negotiations are at an advanced stage for the deal, which would be worth around Rs 18,000 crore.

A banking source claimed that after acquiring 25% in Reliance Communications, Etisalat will make an open offer to acquire an additional 20% stake from the public.

Reliance Communications refused to comment on the news. Etisalat's official spokesperson also denied any such development. However, reliable sources close to the talks confirmed the news.

At present, 67.58% equity in Reliance Communications is owned by Anil Ambani and the rest by public and institutional investors. If the proposed deal is completed, the company's paid-up capital will expand by 25%, which will bring down Anil Ambani's stake to around 55%.

However, this will help Reliance Communications to consolidate its position in the highly capital-intensive sector. The company has already paid over Rs 8,500 crore for 3G licenses. To roll out the network also, it will have to spend a huge amount. A telecom sector expert predicted that many other companies would also divest stakes to raise funds for 3G network rollouts.

To complete the deal, Etisalat will have to divest its existing stake in Etisalat DB Telecom. According to existing regulations, a single entity cannot hold more than 10% stake in two or more companies. As Etisalat owns around 45% in Etisalat DB Telecom, it will have to sell its stake to acquire 25% in Reliance Communications. Etisalat had made a total investment of around $900 million in 2008 to buy the stake in Etisalat DB. A market source said that as Etisalat DB Telecom has yet to roll out its network in the 15 circles, in which it has licenses, the foreign partner is looking for other opportunities to enter the Indian market.

Etisalat operates in 18 countries across Asia, the Middle East and Africa, servicing over 100 million customers. In 2009, it earned a net profit of UAE Dirham 8.836 billion (Rs 11,342 crosre) on a revenue of UAE Dirham 30.831 billion (Rs 39,575 crore).

Reliance Communications earned a revenue of Rs 20,685 crore in 2009-10. Its net profit during the period was Rs 4,777.44 crore. The company operates both GSM and CDMA networks and provides mobile services to over 100 million customers.



Reliance Communications Says Etisalat Report Is ‘Speculation’
Bloomberg
June 02, 2010, 2:07 AM EDT

Reliance Communications Ltd., India’s second-largest wireless operator, said a media report that Emirates Telecommunications Corp. may buy a stake in the Anil Ambani-owned company is “speculation.”

The Times of India, citing bankers it didn’t identify, reported today that Emirates Telecommunications, known as Etisalat, is in an advanced stage of talks to buy 25 percent of Reliance Communications and will make an offer to buy an additional 20 percent from other investors after the acquisition.

Mahesh Prasad, president of Reliance Communications, declined to comment, saying the report is “speculation.”

Reliance Communications rose 6.5 percent to 147.85 rupees as of 11:01 a.m. in Mumbai, compared with a 0.4 percent gain in the benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index. Earlier, the shares jumped as much as 10.5 percent.

The Economic Times yesterday reported that the Indian operator may restart merger talks with South Africa’s MTN Group Ltd. after earlier negotiations collapsed in July 2008. Gaurav Wahi, a spokesman at Reliance Communications, yesterday said the company doesn’t comment on speculation and didn’t know where the report originated.