India's Hinduja group joined Reliance Communications and Vodafone Group today as a suitor for mobile phone operator Hutchison Essar in a $17-$20 billion bid battle.
Hinduja TMT executive chairman Ashok Hinduja said the group was unlikely to settle for anything less than 51 per cent in India's fourth-largest mobile phone operator.
Britain's Vodafone and Reliance Communications, India's second-largest mobile company, have already expressed interest in buying a stake in Hutchison Essar, which is 67 per cent owned by Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications International.
The other 33 per cent is controlled by India's Essar, a steel-to-shipping group controlled by the Ruia family, which itself is reported to want to buy some or all of the firm.
Hutchison has said it has received proposals to buy its stake but has not given details.
The Hinduja family, which runs the back office firm Hinduja TMT and bus and truck maker Ashok Leyland, used to hold a 5.1 per cent stake in Hutchison Essar but sold it to Hutchison last June for $450 million.
