ITV

Tag: Essar Group

  • Bharti Airtel set to acquire Loop for Rs 700 crore

    Bharti Airtel set to acquire Loop for Rs 700 crore

    MUMBAI: India’s largest cellular carrier, Bharti Airtel, is set to acquire small mobile operator Loop Mobile for about Rs 300 crore, according to reports. This would be the first merger in six years in an industry long seen as ripe for consolidation.

     

    Loop, which operates only in Mumbai with about three million subscribers, was up for grabs as a potential acquisition as its spectrum licence lapses on 28 November.

     

    If Bharti completes the acquisition it will overtake Vodafone India and become the market leader in terms of customer numbers, although not by revenue in Mumbai – which is one of the biggest cellphone markets in India.

     

    The deal – if it happens – would also see Bharti take on Loop’s debt of nearly Rs 400 crore.

     

    Industry consolidation has been slow to take place in the world’s second-largest cellular market due to challenging merger rules, including a new requirement that the buyer pay separately for the target company’s airwaves based on prices determined at an auction.

     

    Loop Telecom, an associate company of Loop Mobile, lost its permits in 21 of India’s 22 teleco service areas after the Supreme Court order on the 2008 wireless permits. Loop has denied any wrongdoing.

     

    Loop’s main investor is Dubai-based Khaitan Holdings, whose founders are related to the founding family of Indian conglomerate Essar Group. Essar owns over a per cent in Loop.

  • B2B brands should marry every possible media: Thukral

    B2B brands should marry every possible media: Thukral

    MUMBAI: Today, brand positioning and brand marketing for a corporate is so critical that one has to be on his foot all the times. Essar Group president- corporate branding and strategic initiatives Shivnath Thukral said at World Brand Congress (WBC).

    He said, “One should know everything in Business to Business (B2B) brands. Informed citizens are partners in the evolution and transition of a corporate. Today, everyone who hears about me is my stakeholder. So, the whole world is my stakeholder and I have a responsibility towards them.”

    “For B2B, one has to embrace technology in marketing the brand and surround customers in 360 degree communication. Also use technology and show that with the use of technology we can reach out to the customers wherever they want us to be. Technology enables us to be ahead of time and break the clutter both internally and externally,” Thukral added.

    Talking about brand new corporate, Thukral said, “If you look at the new age informational architecture, that is how your corporate brand has to be. There is no margin for error. You are being watched and heard all the time. Your reputation is what matters a lot as if something goes wrong nobody is spared here.”

    “B2B brands should be associated with an attributes like nation building, pride, fairness, transparency, responsibility, credibility and humility. If they achieve these using technologies, they are on the right path,” Thukral added.

    Thukral feels that brands should marry every form of media because the outcome is intangible and very important for B2B companies.