New Delhi, May 1: Norwegian telecom major Telenor on Monday wrote off its remaining fixed and intangible assets in India worth Norwegian Krone 3.9 billion (over $680 million or Rs 3,500 crore) saying "the uncertainty has increased significantly" following the Supreme Court's ruling in February to cancel Unitech Wireless's 22 licences and the recent Trai recommendations on the re-auction of 2G licences and spectrum.
The statement from the company came a day after the company's Asia head Siggve Brekke told TOI that Telenor was considering exiting India if the regulator's recommendations were accepted by the government in their current form.
It joins Sistema and Etisalat in taking a hit on their balance sheets due to their exposure to India. All these companies have been affected by the Supreme Court order. Etisalat had written off around $820 million of its investment, while Sistema, which like Telenor is still to announce a pullout, took a $700 million hit. So, the three companies between them have written off close to Rs 15,600 crore due to their India exposure. Telenor and Sistema have also threatened to initiate international arbitration and seek damages from the government.
The Norwegian firm holds 67% stake in Unitech Wireless which was controversially awarded licences and spectrum by former telecom minister A Raja, who is facing charges of criminal conspiracy and corruption. In February, the company had announced a write down of around $730 million, taking the total to over $1.4 billion (around Rs 7,200 crore at the current exchange rate).
"Telenor is working actively towards Indian authorities to bring forward an acceptable framework for continued operations. As a precautionary measure, Telenor ASA has decided to write down the remaining fixed and intangible assets in India amounting to NOK 3.9 billion. The write down will be included in Telenor's results for the first quarter 2012, to be presented on 8 May 2012. After the write down, Telenor has no further accounting exposure related to India as of 31 March 2012," the company said in a statement on Monday.
In a separate development a few hours later, the Telecom Commission decided to seek certain clarifications from Trai. "We wanted to understand the basis on which this reserve price has been arrived at... what is the likely impact on tariff," telecom secretary R Chandrashekhar said. A ministerial panel is also due to meet on Tuesday to discuss spectrum auction although a final view is expected around mid-May.
On Sunday, Brekke had cited various problems with Trai recommendations, including the rural rollout obligations. "In totality, if this is becoming policy, then the government is forcing us to leave. It's quite clear that it will not work for us... We are willing to write off the Rs 14,000 crore that we have invested," he had said.
Brekke's outburst coincided with petitioning done by the telecom companies to get the government to dilute the proposals. But given the controversy around allocation of scarce natural resources, such as spectrum and coal, below the market price, it is unlikely that the government will risk reducing the floor recommended by Trai.
The telecom regulator has suggested that the government start the auction with a base price of Rs 3,600 crore per megahertz, which translates into over Rs 18,000 crore for 5 Mhz, nearly 10 times higher than what Raja had charged for licence and spectrum.
Brekke was also critical of the move to auction only 5 Mhz spectrum and termed it as a "trial balloon" to set the price level for future rounds.
Comments
Add new comment