Qualcomm has sold a 26% stake in its Indian wireless broadband venture to Global Holdings and Tulip Telecom. The two Indian companies reportedly paid $58 million for the stake with the idea to get into the upcoming TD-LTE action in the fast-growing Indian market.
Global Holdings, which BTW owns telecoms infrastructure firms GTL Ltd and GTL Infra, and communications services provider Tulip Telecom both grabbed 13% of the venture, leaving Qualcomm with 74% stake, which is the most a foreign firm can own in India.
After the deal is closed, the new India-registered venture will have an enterprise value of $1.11 billion, with $222 million as equity and $888 million as debt.
As you may know (we talked about it previously), Qualcomm won one slot of 20 MHz TDD broadband wireless access spectrum in the 2.3 GHz band covering the key telecom circles of Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala. The plan now is to start building the TD-LTE based network and roll-out services starting in 2011…
[Via: MobileBusinessBriefing]