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MEDIA RELEASE
8
Mar 2006
TEMASEK
HOLDINGS ACQUIRES 9.9% STAKE IN TATA TELESERVICES
Tata Teleservices Limited today announced that Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd (Temasek), through its wholly owned subsidiary, Aranda Investments (Mauritius) Pte. Ltd., has taken a 9.9% stake in the telecom company for an undisclosed amount.
The investment by Temasek coincides with Tata Teleservices’ addition of over 5 million net subscribers and its nationwide commercial launch of services over the last year.
Commenting on the investment, Tata Teleservices’ CEO, Mr. Darryl Green said, “Tata Teleservices is already one of the larger telecom companies in the world. This investment not only reaffirms investor interest in India’s telecom sector but also underlines confidence in Tata Teleservices’ growth plans and aspirations to achieve market leadership. This investment is a tremendous endorsement of our efforts to build a technologically driven and consumer-focused company. We hope to tap on Temasek’s network and experience to grow Tata Teleservices’ share of the market and to fulfill our vision of becoming a market leader.”
Mr. Manish Kejriwal, Managing Director of Temasek Holdings Advisors India Pvt. Ltd said,” We are excited about India’s growth prospects and the telecom industry provides with us with an attractive opportunity to participate in this fast growing market. As a shareholder of Tata Teleservices, we are privileged to have the opportunity to invest in a company that is poised to become a significant national player. This investment also marks our second significant investment (after TCS) in the Tata Group, one of India’s most respected business groups. We look forward to leveraging Temasek’s global network and experience across various industries to help expand Tata Teleservices’ footprint.”
About
Tata Teleservices:
Tata Teleservices is one of India's leading private telecom service providers.
The company offers integrated telecom solutions to its customers under the Tata
Indicom brand, and uses the latest CDMA 3G1X technology for its wireless network.
Tata Teleservices operates in 2200 towns across 20 circles i.e. Andhra Pradesh,
Chennai, Gujarat, Karnataka, New Delhi, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, Orissa,
Bihar, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (E), Uttar
Pradesh (W), Kolkata, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. The company has
a customer base of over 8.4 million.
About
Temasek Holdings:
Established in 1974, Temasek Holdings is an Asia investment company headquartered
in Singapore. It manages a diversified global portfolio of US$60 billion, principally
in Singapore, Asia and the OECD economies, and has a corporate credit rating
of AAA/Aaa by Standard & Poor's and Moody's respectively. Its investments
cover various industries: telecommunications and media, financial services,
property, transportation and logistics, energy and resources, infrastructure,
engineering and technology, as well as pharmaceuticals and biosciences. Its
overseas investments include blue chip companies in India such as ICICI Bank,
Mahindra & Mahindra and Matrix Laboratories; China Construction Bank and
China COSCO Holdings in China; Bank Danamon and Bank Internasional Indonesia
in Indonesia; Quintiles Transnational Corp in the USA; as well as Hana Bank
in South Korea. For more information, please visit www.temasekholdings.com.sg
Additional information:
Tata Teleservices is part of the INR 76,929 Crore (US$17.8
billion) Tata Group, that has over 90 companies, over 220,000 employees and
more than 2.8 million shareholders. With a committed investment of INR 36,000
Crore (US$ 7.5 billion) in Telecom (FY 2006), the Group has a formidable presence
across the telecom value chain. The Tata Group plans an additional investment
of around INR 9000/- Crore (US$ 2 billion) in this sector in the next two years.
Tata Teleservices spearheads the Group’s presence in the telecom sector.
Incorporated in 1996, Tata Teleservices was the first to launch CDMA mobile
services in India with the Andhra Pradesh circle.
Starting with the major acquisition of Hughes Tele.com (India) Limited [now
renamed Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited] in December 2002, the company
has swung into expansion mode. Tata Teleservices operates in 20 circles
i.e. Andhra Pradesh, Chennai, Gujarat, Karnataka, Delhi, Maharashtra, Mumbai,
Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Bihar, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar
Pradesh (E), Uttar Pradesh (W), Kerala, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal.
Having pioneered the CDMA 3G1x technology platform in India, Tata Teleservices
has established a robust and reliable telecom infrastructure that ensures quality
in its services. It has partnered with Motorola, Ericsson and Lucent for the
deployment of a reliable, technologically advanced network.
The company, which heralded convergence technologies in the Indian telecom sector,
is today the market leader in the fixed wireless telephony market with a total
customer base of over 3.3 million.
Tata Teleservices’ bouquet of telephony services includes Mobile services,
Fixed Wireless Phones, Public Booth Telephony, and Wireline services. Other
services include value added services like voice portal, roaming, post-paid
Internet services, 3-way conferencing, group calling, Wi-Fi Internet services
and data services.
Tata Teleservices marked its entry into the Prepaid segment by launching 100
% Sacchai True Paid, across all its existing 20 circles. Recently,
Tata Indicom redefined the existing prepaid mobile market in India, by unveiling
their new offering – Tata Indicom ‘Non Stop Mobile’-
which allows customers to receive free incoming calls opening up new frontiers
for the Indian prepaid customers by offering 100 % talktime on True
Paid.
Tata Indicom has also launched a collection of 1000 mobile games – one
of the largest collections of mobile games in the world on Nokia 3105. Some
of the other products launched by the company include prepaid FWP and public
phone booths, new handsets, new voice & data services such as BREW games,
picture messaging, polyphonic ring tones, interactive applications like news,
cricket, astrology, etc.
For further Information please Contact:
Rashmi Naik,
Cell: 91 98215 34390, email: rashmi@vccpl.com
Mrinal Sapre, Cell: 91 92233 02176, email: msapre@vccpl.com
Sandeep Mosamkar, Cell: 91 98204 92224, email: smosamkar@vccpl.com
Vaishnavi
Corporate Communications (P) Ltd. Mumbai
Tel: 91- 22-5656 8787 Fax: 91-22-5656 8788