Videocon To Bid For Motorola's Mobile Biz

Videocon will bid for Motorola’s mobile business in seven days. Venugopal Dhoot, CMD, Videocon Industries told CNBC-TV18 that they are in the race for Motorola’s handsets as they have a lot of business in mobile telephones and have got licences for 22 circles. He added that Motorola handsets have 15 % market share globally.

Excerpts from CNBC-TV18’s exclusive interview with Venugopal Dhoot:

Are you indeed in the race for Motorola’s mobile business?

We are in the race for Motorola’s handset business. The reason is that we have a big business in India in mobile telephones. We have got licenses for 22 circles and pan-India licenses for similar phones.

Secondly, we have a network of retail chains. So, it is a very synergic business for us. In India, there would be a big market for mobile phones. We think around 25 million mobile phones will be sold in India in the times to come.

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What are you looking to pay for this business? What are the sales of this division of Motorola that you are looking to acquire?

Payment and other issues will be decided. We have appointed a top investment banker who is our advisor and he is among the top three in the world. So, they are going to advice us after due diligence and that will be decided later on.

But since this is a very synergic business to us and there will be a market of around 12 crore mobile phones from next year, it will be a very big market and it is synergic to us. That is why we have decided to make a bid for Motorola’s mobile business.

How much would you be paying for this business; roughly given the market share?

Roughly, if I disclose that then you could come to know what is in my mind and it will clearly not make business sense. What amount we are going to pay will be negotiated, decided and evaluated by our investment banker and also after due diligence of the company.

What the last reported annual sales of this division that you are looking to acquire?

Motorola’s total sale is around USD 36 billion. With respect to mobile handset, we know that by percentage and they have more than 15% global market share.

Will you be looking to shift the manufacturing facilities of Motorola as well?

There can be a marriage between Indian labour and Motorola’s technology.

What is the kind of timeline when can we see any finalisation of this deal? Are there any other bidders as well? Has the company made it open that they are looking at being bought out?

Yes, they have made it open. But there will be several others as well. But from the Indian side, we are very interested and very aggressive to talk to them.