Recently, Motorola and Spice Telecom concluded a deal to sell its 10 per cent equity stake in the Rs 460 crore paid-up capital of Spice Telecom to Distacom.

``The company has sold its stake at a premium of 10-15 per cent. Because of the dismal performance of cellular ventures, the company could only garner an amount that was just above the par value,'' a top Spice Telecom official told The Financial Express.

However, Motorola would continue its support to Spice as a telecom equipment supplier. ``The pullout will not affect our relationship and we will repay the huge amount to Motorola as the suppliers' credit. The main reason for exiting the cellular venture was in line with its global strategy to hive off non-core businesses,'' he added.

When contacted, SpiceTelecom chief executive officer Fergus Wilmer declined to quantify the exact amount that would be given to Motorola, but said the amount included a small premium. At present Spice Telecom's paid-up capital stands at Rs 510 crore, recently upped by Rs 50 crore by fresh infusion of capital by the promoters.

Currently Spice is a 51:49 per cent joint venture between Modi Wellvest and Distacom with the latter increasing its stake from the earlier 39 per cent. On the other hand, the Modis has 51 per cent equity stake in Modi Wellvest, while American Investment Group (AIG) has the rest. ``There will be no plan to induct another partner for the time being,'' Wilmer said.

Spice Telecom is also planning to invest about Rs 100 crore over the next two years to expand its network in Karnataka and Punjab circles. With the planned investment, the company will be adding another 900 km of optical fibre cable cellular backbone to the existing 1,200 km.