Telenor-controlled Norwegian mobile operator Unitech Wireless said on Tuesday that it has secured a loan of up to $1 billion from the State Bank of India, the country?s largest public sector bank.
The facility, which includes bank guarantees and letter of credit, would be used by the company to finance its roll-out operations in India. The company acquired licences to provide mobile services in the country’s 22 circles in January 2008 and is planning to commence operations by the year-end.
Telenor ASA currently holds a 49% stake in Unitech Wireless, which is the telecom arm of real estate developer Unitech. The realty developer diluted 67% stake in the telecom company through issue of fresh equity to the Nordic operator last year for Rs 6,120 crore. The loan for the roll-out has been syndicated by SBI Capital Markets Ltd.
The company currently has a strength of over 650 employees and is adding about 200 each month. ?By the time we launch our operations, we should be around 1,700-plus in employee strength,” Kirsten Thulin, chief HR officer of Unitech Wireless, had earlier told FE.
The nominated managing director, Stein-Erik Vellan, and nominated CFO Johan Lindgren are currently awaiting security clearance from the home affairs ministry. While Rajeev Bawa is head of corporate affairs, David Meneghello is the chief marketing officer and Rohit Chandra is the chief operating officer.
Unitech Wireless is among the new operators who were granted the unified access service licence in 2007, along with Swan Telecom, Loop Telecom, S Tel and Sistema Shyam. ?
Franco-American telecom equipment major Alcatel-Lucent and Chinese vendor Huawei have been awarded a $400-million GSM equipment contract from Unitech Wireless. The break-up of the contract between the two is of $200 million each.
The equipment contract has been outsourced to the vendors, who would build the mobile network for Unitech Wireless and also offer other services like network design, installation and network management.
Before this, Unitech Wireless had awarded its IT outsourcing contract to Wipro Technologies. The company has also signed a tower-sharing agreement with Tata Teleservices-Quippo JV tower firm.
Like all new entrants, the company would not be investing in the tower business owing to fund crunch and the sheer time involved.
Sources say the company would go for a phased roll-out, wherein initially services would be rolled out in select states of south India and a few eastern states, such as Orissa and Bihar.
This is because the maximum subscriber addition is happening in C circles for the past several months.