Tata Teleservices Maharashtra to raise up to Rs 20,000 crore

Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd (TTML) today said its board will meet on October 18 to consider a proposal for raising up to Rs 20,000 through issue of preference shares to promoters or via bonds.

The move comes just two days after Tata Group announced that the consumer mobile business of TTML as well as that of Tata Teleservices (TTSL) will be taken over by telecom giant Bharti Airtel on a debt-free, cash-free basis.

"...a meeting of board of directors of the company is scheduled to be held on October 18 to consider the proposal to raise additional funds up to an aggregate amount of Rs 20,000 crore," TTML said in a BSE filing.

It, however, did not specify the purpose for the fund raising. E-mails sent to Tata Teleservices remained unanswered.

TTML said the fund raise will be done through issue of one or more types of instruments including redeemable preference shares to promoters, non-convertible debentures in one or more tranches, and/or inter corporate deposit/loans from the promoters and others.

Yesterday, TTML had made a similar filing stating that its board will meet on October 18 to "consider the proposal to raise additional funds up to an aggregate amount of Rs 6,000 crore".

Over 4 crore customers of TTSL and TTML in 19 telecom circles or zones will be taken over by Airtel from November 1.

Airtel will also get access to 178.5 MHz of spectrum across 800, 1800, 2100 Mhz (3G, 4G) bands.

The deal will allow Bharti Airtel to close the gap with soon to be merged Idea-Vodafone combined entity.

While all of the Rs 31,000-crore debt will remain with the Tatas, Airtel will assume payment of close to 20 per cent of the Rs 9,000-10,000 crore deferred payments for the spectrum to the government. Tatas will pay the rest.

The deal is part of Tata Group's plan to find a solution for the troubled mobile business that was weighed down by huge debt, spectrum liability and monthly cash losses.

Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran had recently conceded that the groups mobile business Tata Teleservices is in a "really bad shape" and that a "tough call" will have to be taken on the business in this financial year.

In April this year, the Delhi High Court had rejected the Reserve Bank of India's objections in the Tata-DoCoMo dispute, clearing the decks for the Tatas to pay over USD 1.1 billion to NTT Docomo in a matter pertaining to the Indian telecom joint venture.

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)