Idea Cellular said that its merger with Vodafone India is in the final leg of regulatory approvals and is expected to complete in the first half of the ongoing year.
Both companies have already received approval for the proposed combination from the Competition Commission of India’ (CCI), SEBI & Stock Exchanges and recently from National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Bench of Ahmedabad and Mumbai.
Idea said that both the companies, within the framework of law, have set up respective project management teams, preparing for the merger and initiated detailed planning for identified capex and opex synergies.
Vodafone India recently named Manish Dawar, former group chief financial offer of Den Networks, as its finance head and he will eventually take on the role in the merged entity. Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla has already been named the chairman of the merged company, while the chief executive officer will be named jointly, reported ET Telecom.
It can also be recalled that Idea cellular has posted their biggest ever quarterly loss of Rs 1285 crore on Wednesday. in its fifth consecutive quarterly loss. The telecom company’s revenue declined by 25 perecnt to Rs 6,509.6 crore, mainly due to telecom regulator TRAI’s decision to reduce interconnection charges by more than half.
