Tata Tele divests 7% to Siva
The Economic Times — March 10, 2006

Tata Teleservices (TTSL) has offloaded a 7% stake to the Chennai-based entrepreneur C Sivasankaran. This deal comes on the heels of a TTSL's 9.9% stake sale to Singapore's Temasek Holdings. The deal with Mr Sivasankaran is expected to be in the region of Rs 1,100-Rs 1,200 crore though exact figures were not available. TTSL is a privately held company. In all, TTSL has offloaded around 17% for Rs 2,650-2,800 crore in these two transactions, according to sources. ET had reported on TTSL's planned sale of a less than 10% stake to Mr Sivasankaran in its edition dated January 23, '06.

The funds raised by the stake sale will be utilised for the expansion of its network. TTSL's total project cost is estimated to be in the range of Rs 21,000-22,000 crore. Of this, close to Rs 16,000 crore has been spent already. TTSL offers mobile and fixed services in 20 telecom circles.