Telia AB holds 26 per cent stake in JT Mobiles, one of the cellular service providers in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh circles. Recently the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) referred to the law ministry a proposal of JT Mobiles to transfer the stake.

"In line with the global strategy, the transfer of stake was necessary because of the recent merger of Telia AB and TeleNor of Norway. The change in the name of the partner will not have any bearing on the existing equity structure," JT Mobiles president KS Reddy said.

Currently JT Mobiles has three foreign partners - Jasmine Telecom of Thailand (holding 23 per cent equity), Telephone of Thailand (10 per cent holding) and Telia AB (26 per cent of the equity). Indian partners in the venture are UnitedTelecom with 31 per cent stake and Indchem Sanmar with 20 per cent equity.

Earlier JT Mobiles had approached FIPB to effect a change in its foreign partner following global restructuring in that company. Last week FIPB officials had deferred the proposal without any specific reasons.

According to industry sources, the application of JT Mobiles was referred to the law ministry seeking its view since the company owed a huge amount to the government on account of licence fee.

JT Mobiles owed Rs 636 crore to the exchequer as licence fee dues as on 30 April, 1999. "Though it may create some delay, it will not have any impact on JT Mobiles' operations in the country," Reddy added.

The application was moved following global restructuring of Telia operations by which all overseas operations are shifted from the holding company Telia AB to Telia Overseas AB, a subsidiary formed for the purpose.

JT Mobiles had received a stay from the Supreme Court not to disconnect its network from the national network ofthe Department of Telecom (DoT) in view of the unpaid licence fee. The company had also demanded an extension in effective date of the licence agreement.

According to Reddy, the company was awaiting formal guidelines on revenue sharing system from the Attorney General (AG). The proposed guidelines on the new telecom policy would help JT Mobiles to heave a sigh of relief.