Bharti Airtel is all set to acquire Loop Mobile, according to a recent report from The Economic Times. Airtel would acquire Loop Mobile in a Rs. 700-crore deal, which is expected to be announced later this week, the report adds. Loop Mobile was previously called BPL Mobile when it started its operations in 1995 BPL Mobile and was renamed as Loop Mobile in 2009. It operates in Mumbai and has 3 million subscribers, as of December 2013.
According to ET’s sources, this deal would be via slump sale, in which one or more undertakings are transferred for a lump sum, without values being assigned to individual assets and liabilities. With this deal Airtel would also get 400 telecom towers, related electronic equipments, in addition to their subscribers in the circle. Loop Mobile did not extend their license in the recent spectrum auction, but Airtel retained their 900 MHz spectrum in the Mumbai circle, for which they paid Rs. 2,815 crores.
Since Loop Mobile’s license expires this September, the subscribers would be shifted to Airtel, says the report. After this deal Airtel’s subscriber base in Mumbai would jump to 7.1 million.