Print

Comment

Email

Digg

Del.icio.us

Reddit

Aircel is this year's only new entrant in the V&D 100 top ten club of services providers. The Tamil Nadu operator registered the average growth much better than the industry average both in terms of subscribers and revenue. In fact, Aircel registered the highest revenue growth (98 percent) among all mobile operators. Spread across 330 towns across Tamil Nadu, it had 1.76 million subscribers at the end of March 31, 2005, 71 percent more than what it had in the previous financial year.

Chairman: C Sivasankaran Area of Operation: Mobile services Address: Aircel Limited Sterling Towers, 327, Anna Salai,  Teynampet, Chennai 600006 Tel: +91-44-4313001 Fax: +91-44-4313036 Website: www.aircel.com  V&D estimates CyberMedia Research Highlights • Aircel posted the highest revenue growth (98 per cent) among all mobile operators • It had 1.76 million subscribers at the end of March 31, 2005, 71 per cent more than the previous financial year • Hutch and Russian conglomerate AFK Sistema showed interest in acquiring Aircel, but to no avail

All this resulted in Aircel emerging as the sixth largest mobile operator in the country. The operator had a turnover of Rs. 375 crore in 2003-04 on a subscriber base of 1.03 million. The growth was the result of a major expansion driven by Aircel last year. The operator focused on capacity expansion and worked on improving the quality of its services. This was complemented by innovative tariff schemes that lured large number of new subscribers into its fold.

For some time Aircel appeared to have been up for grabs with a host of companies including Hutch having showing interest in it. However, Hutch could not go ahead with the acquisition because of regulatory hurdles. In February 2005, Russian conglomerate AFK Sistema signed an agreement to buy 49 percent of Aircel for $450 million.

This offer was bigger than that of Hutchison's to buy 49 percent in Aircel for $362 million. However, this agreement also lapsed in March 31 this year. The Aircel venture is held through two separate corporate vehicles - Aircel (Tamil Nadu license holder) and Aircel Cellular (Chennai license holder).

More recently, it has been reported that a host of private equity investors led by the US-based Pequot Ventures is picking up a 30 percent stake in the C Sivasankaran-promoted Aircel for $350 million.

In the first phase, the funds would bring in $200 million while another $150 million will be pumped in the second phase. The company is also looking at entering the equity market by the end of the current financial year.

Page(s)   1