Vodafone and Idea Cellular to merge and create new India market leader

Mumbai

BRITAIN's Vodafone Group and Idea Cellular agreed on Monday to merge their Indian operations to create the country's biggest telecoms business in a bid to contest a brutal price war sparked by new rival Reliance.

The combined Vodafone-Idea group would have almost 400 million customers, or a 35 per cent market share, with an implied enterprise value of 828 billion rupees (S$17.7 billion) for Vodafone and 722 billion rupees for Idea. "The combined entity will become the leading challenger with the scale to compete more effectively," Idea said.