Billionaire Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications is in talks to merge its wireless business with smaller rival Aircel to create the country's second-biggest mobile phone operator by user numbers. RCom said it is holding non-binding, but exclusive talks, with Aircel's majority owner Malaysia's Maxis Communications and another shareholder Sindya Securities and Investments.
It entered into a 90-day 'exclusivity period' for the deal that will exclude RCom's tower and optical fibre assets for which a separate sale process is ongoing, the company said in a statement. RCom is India's fourth-biggest telecom operator with almost 110 million customers, while Aircel ranks fifth with 84 million subscribers. Merger with Aircel together with buying Russian firm AFK Sistema's Indian wireless unit as announced last month, could nearly double RCom's number of subscribers to more than 200 million. Sistema had 8.36 million users.
For its towers and fiber-optic infrastructure assets, RCom had earlier this month said that it is in talks to sell them to private equity firms Tillman Global Holdings LLC and TPG Asia Inc by mid-January. In the statement RCom said: "It has entered into a 90-day exclusivity period with Maxis Communications Berhad (MCB) and Sindya Securities and Investments Pvt Ltd, the shareholders of Aircel Limited, to consider the potential combination of the Indian wireless businesses of RCom and Aircel."