Cabinet clears Vodafone-Essar FDI deal

NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Union Finance Minister, P Chidambaram has cleared the Vodafone-FDI deal. The Cabinet had thus allowed all seven subsidiaries to take note of the aggregate of direct and indirect shareholding of up to 74 percent.

The decision was taken on the recommendations of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) in its meeting held on 27th July, 2007. However, there will be no fresh FDI inflows. The subsidiary companies, which have been cleared, are Essar Spacetel Ltd of Essar Spacetel Ltd; Fascel Ltd of Vodafone Essar Gujarat Ltd., Hutchinson Essar Cellular Ltd; and Hutchinson Essar Mobile Services Ltd. Hutchison Essar South Ltd., the holding company of Vodafone Essar South Ltd., Hutchison Telecom East Ltd., which is now Vodafone Essar Digilink Ltd and Aircel Digilink India Ltd, are the other subsidiary companies.

With the much-awaited Cabinet approval, the decks have been cleared for Vodafone Essar to roll out thier services under the new brand name.