Consumer mobile business of Tata Teleservices becomes part of telecom operator Bharti Airtel

New Delhi: Consumer mobile business of Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) has now become part of telecom operator Bharti Airtel, according to a joint statement issued by the two companies on Monday. The schemes of arrangement regarding the merger of the consumer mobile businesses of Tata Teleservices and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) into Bharti Airtel and Bharti Hexacom (Airtel) have become effective from 1 July, 2019, it said. The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal had ordered the Department of Telecommunications to take on record the merger and approval of the schemes of arrangement by Delhi and Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal. [caption id=“attachment_4285325” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. ThinkStock[/caption] “Consequently, all customers, assets, spectrum and agreed liabilities of the consumer mobile businesses (CMB) of TTSL and TTML [Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd] now stand merged with Airtel,” the statement said. According to the regulatory filing by both the groups, shareholders in TTML, which is a listed entity, will get one equity share of Airtel for every 2,014 equity shares held by them in the company as on record date of 12 July, 2019. TTML shareholders holding fully paid-up, redeemable preference shares will get 10 fully paid-up redeemable, non-participating, non-cumulative preference shares of a face value of Rs 100 of Airtel. As part of the merger, Airtel will absorb Tata Teleservices’ CMB operations in 19 telecom circles – 17 under TTSL and 2 under Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd. It also agreed to take over a small portion of the unpaid spectrum liability of Tata Teleservices. The merger will bolster Airtel’s spectrum pool with significant additional 178.5 MHz spectrum in 1800, 2100 and 850 MHz bands, widely used for 4G. The merger includes transfer of all the customers and assets of Tata Teleservices’ CMB to Airtel.