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All 6 bidders for VSNL shortlisted

The Indian government has shortlisted all the six groups that submitted preliminary bids for Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd last month, a government official said on Thursday.

The government, which holds a 52.97 per cent stake in the monopoly overseas telecommunications carrier, plans to sell 25 per cent along with management control to a strategic partner and another 1.97 per cent to VSNL employees.

It has received expressions of interest or preliminary bids from six bidders, including three leading Indian conglomerates, the Tata, Birla and Reliance groups.

Other bidders include a consortium comprising local telecom firms BPL Communications and Sterling Ltd and two US firms TyCom Ltd and Century Tel, another consortium comprising consumer appliances group Videocon and Japan's Toshiba, and New Delhi-based telecoms group Bharti Enterprises along with Singapore Telecom.

"All six groups have been shortlisted. The next stage involves giving them access to the data room which should happen in the next couple of weeks," the official, who did not want to be identified, said.

This is in contrast to the bidding for India's long haul carrier Air India when at least two of the initial six bidders could not get past the government's screening process.

The move to privatise the New York Stock Exchange-listed VSNL, a monopoly overseas telecommunications carrier and the country's largest Internet access provider, is billed as its most ambitious yet in a decade of economic reforms.

The government is being advised by a consortium made up of Credit Suisse First Boston and SBI Capital Markets, a Bombay-based investment bank, in the privatisation.

VSNL is one of India's most cash-rich firms sitting on an idle cash surplus of over Rs 50 billion.

VSNL's shares were quoted 1.48 per cent lower at Rs 333.10 in Thursday afternoon trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange which was down 0.52 per cent.

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