Hutch Essar and Vodafone M&A article: The acquisition of Hutchison Essar of India by UK based Vodafone was carried

out in 2007. This marked the penetration of Vodafone into the Indian telecom market and provided the opportunity to Vodafone to tap the huge potential of expansion in India. To this end, Vodafone set up plans to launch services like mobile entertainment, mobile banking and low cost handsets. The deal was welcomed by Sam Pitroda, the National Knowledge Commission chairman of India. Vodafone acquired Hutchison Essar, the fourth largest telecom operator in India in 2007. The Hutchison-Essar group contained 67 % stake of Hutch and 33% stake of Essar. Out of the total bid of 18.8 billion dollars, Hutchison's share of 67% amounted to 11.1 billion US dollars. The deal was reached after months of negotiations between the two groups and after Vodafone had outbid other prospective companies. The important factors related to the acquisition of Hutch by Vodafone were The potential of penetration in India is very high compared to Vodafone's prospects in other countries. The current penetration level in India is still quite low keeping in mind India's huge population. The average duration of mobile usage per user per month is India is higher than that in Europe. While this is 400 minutes in India, the average mobile usage per user in Europe in a month is only 150 minutes. Telecom regulations by the Indian government which are conductive to the expansion of cellular services in India.

M&A in telecom industry article: The telecom industry had topped the charts of merger and acquisition deals, valued at $22.73 billion, across all sectors in the April-June quarter of 2010-11, according to a study by industry body Assocham. The year 2010 started with a bang, with news of M&A deals coming out thick and fast especially in the telecom sector; boosting telecom as the top sector in this regard. Three major outbound and domestic merger and acquisitions deals worth $22.73 billion took place in the telecom sector during April-June 2010, representing 67.19% share in the total valuation of the deals that occurred during that period.This was also 51.73 times up from last year's value of $439.4 million during the same period. The most talked about and prominent deal was by Anil Ambani Group's Reliance Communications, which merged its telecom tower business with GTL Infrastructure for

$11 billion. The other major deals included Bharti Airtel's deal to acquire Kuwait-based Zain Telecom's African business for $10.7 billion and Reliance Industries' acquisition of Infotel Broadband for $1 billion. One of the chief reasons for all these deals across the Indian sub continent is because still western stock markets were under pressure and much below the highs they had set before the recession came in. Indian market on the other hand was in better condition than their western counterparts and recession had not hit them as badly which brings them in a comfortable position to sign such deals with ease. Other sectors including pharmaceutical, banking and finance, metal and mining, energy, steel, cement, media and entertainment, aviation, real estate, IT and ITES, consumer durables, and hospitality witnessed 57 M&A deals pegged at $11102 million, contributing a total share of 32.81%. The year 2010 had all the right ingredients in place to become the year of acquisitions and mergers for the telecom industry leading to its rapid growth.

Airtel acquired afrcan co. zain By the end of March 2010, Bharti Airtel clinched the deal with Africa's Zain, putting an end to the month-long palaver on whether the two companies would eventually sign on the dotted line, given Bharti's two earlier unsucessful attempts to strike a deal with South Africa's MTN. According to the legally binding definitive agreement signed in Amsterdam, the Zain Group has now effectively sold its African operations, other than those in Sudan and Morocco, to Bharti Airtel for a sum of $10.7 billion.it had become India's second largest overseas acquisition after Tata Steel's $13 billion purchase of Corus in 2007. With the acquisition, Bharti had emerged as the world's fifth largest wireless company with operations spanning in 18 countries (including Zain's mobile operations in 15 countries). The acquisition had also increased Bharti's subscriber base significantly. After adding Zain's 42 million customers, Bharti's total subscriber base will climb to 179 million. Bharti Airtel had formed two special purpose vehicles (SPVs) in the Netherlands and Singapore to execute the $10.7 billion deal with a minimum financial risk. The SPVs, whose dealings will be guaranteed by Bharti, will own the African assets of Kuwait's Zain. According to the deal between Bharti and Zain, the Indian telecom player had to pay $8.3 billion to Zain within three months after the deal was signed and $700 million within a year. For this, it had arranged a $7.5 billion dollar funding and a $1 billion rupee loan. Tel.net.in april 15,2010