R-Com to acquire Sistema

Reliance Communications Ltd. is acquiring Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd Wireless business for equity worth Rs. 2,100 crore. It has also committed to paying Sistema liabilities to the government, the present value of which is Rs. 2,400 crore. R-com has paid three times Sistema annual revenues of Rs. 1500 crore.

This is much higher than Bharti Airtel Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd enterprise value of sales valuation of around 2.2 times. While these companies have operating profit margins of over 30%, Sistema reported operating losses were over 30% of its revenues. Sistema holds 800 Mega Hertz spectrums in eight key circles, which can be extremely valuable for Reliance Jio.

Sistema will be launching its LTE Services, including voice over LTE, with much wider coverage, vis-à-vis spectrum in higher frequency bands. Sistema holds spectrum in lucrative circles such as Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kolkata. Sistema spectrum in these eight circles is worth Rs. 7,955 crore. Not all of this will necessarily flow into R-com books, even if Reliance Jio agrees the price.

This is because the government spectrum trading guidelines includes a clause that states that for any spectrum acquired in the March 2013 auction trading will be permitted only if the price differential the latest price auction price is paid.

Bharti Airtel Buys Augere

Bharti Airtel has agreed to acquire Augere Wireless Broadband India, as the nation’s top telecom carrier looks to consolidate its 4G footprint ahead of the launch of similar high speed broadband services by rivals such as Vodafone India, Idea Cellular and Reliance Jio Infocomm.

Upon acquisition Augere will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Airtel. Augere had won a block of 20 MHz of 4G spectrum in the Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh circle for Rs 122.46 crore in 2010 auctions. The company owned by France Telecom and a clutch of private equity funds such as Harbinger Capital and New Silk Route initially announced plans of rolling out 4G services in late 2011.

The latest move will allow Airtel to expand its 4G high speed broadband footprint ahead of the 4G launch by Reliance Jio and Vodafone, scheduled for December. Idea launch is slated for early next year. Airtel had bought airwaves in the 2300 MHz band in Kolkata, Maharashtra, Punjab and Karnataka in the 2010 spectrum auctions and later acquired chip-maker Qualcomm airwaves in another four circles of Delhi, Mumbai, Kerala and Haryana.

Both 4G and 3G spectrum are critical for the next phase of growth of mobile phone operators as mobile data increasingly replaces voices as the main growth driver for them. Airtel posted almost 80% growths in its mobile data revenue in the first fiscal quarter through June. In March, Airtel entered into a partnership with China Mobile, the world’s largest telecom operator.