---
title: Regulatory changes could see Indian market leader acquiring local rivals - Developing Telecoms
description: The Indian government is reviewing its stance on mergers and acquisitions as a means of fostering consolidation in the highly competitive market – and this may lead to the market leader Bharti Airtel acquiring domestic operators.
canonical_url: https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/operator-news/3673-regulatory-changes-could-see-indian-market-leader-acquiring-local-rivals.html
language: en-GB
date: 2015-06-28T06:24:32Z
notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/operator-news/3673-regulatory-changes-could-see-indian-market-leader-acquiring-local-rivals.html. Schema.org structured data included at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers.
markdown-tokens: 1225
---

> **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/operator-news/3673-regulatory-changes-could-see-indian-market-leader-acquiring-local-rivals.html. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content.
> **Structured data** as JSON-LD may be found at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers.
> **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above.


 [Operators](https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/operator-news.html)## Regulatory changes could see Indian market leader acquiring local rivals

 

 

   Details    James Barton    Category: [Operators](https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/operator-news.html)     22 December 2011     8721 views   

 

The Indian government is reviewing its stance on mergers and acquisitions as a means of fostering consolidation in the highly competitive market – and this may lead to the market leader Bharti Airtel acquiring domestic operators...

The Indian government is reviewing its stance on mergers and acquisitions as a means of fostering consolidation in the highly competitive market – and this may lead to the market leader Bharti Airtel acquiring domestic operators.

The operator’s CEO Sanjay Kapoor said in an interview: “Bharti as a company has grown both through organic and inorganic forms of growth. So we are not averse to acquisition, but every acquisition has to be evaluated on its merits.”

He added: “Given our position in the market, and given the fact that we have a 30 percent market share even in a very crowded market, we see that any move towards acquisition will purely be dependent on what’s on the table. Right now there’s nothing on the table.”

Consolidation between the fifteen competing operators in India is currently stymied by legislation, and this has driven prices down to under US$0.01 per minute. The current law states that at least four private operators must be present in each of India’s 22 telecom circles, but that no merged entity may have a market share of over 40%.

These are far from the only restrictions: operators can hold only a limited amount of spectrum per circle, and cannot hold a stake of over 10% in another operator if they are present in the same circle. In addition, there is a three-year period after receiving a licence during which operators are forbidden from selling a stake.

 

 

   
## More Articles you may be Interested in...

<!-- AI:SCHEMA: Schema.org description of canonical page in JSON-LD format -->
<!-- AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN format=jsonld scope=page -->

```json
{
    "@context": "http:\/\/schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "Article",
            "author": {
                "@id": "https:\/\/www.developingtelecom.com\/#james_barton_4d6427c012"
            },
            "dateModified": "2015-06-28T06:24:32Z",
            "datePublished": "2011-12-22T10:13:21Z",
            "description": "The Indian government is reviewing its stance on mergers and acquisitions as a means of fostering consolidation in the highly competitive market – and this may lead to the market leader Bharti Airtel acquiring domestic operators.",
            "headline": "Regulatory changes could see Indian market leader acquiring local rivals",
            "image": {
                "@id": "https:\/\/www.developingtelecom.com\/#defaultLogo"
            },
            "inLanguage": "en-GB",
            "mainEntityOfPage": {
                "@type": "WebPage",
                "url": "https:\/\/www.developingtelecom.com\/telecom-business\/operator-news\/3673-regulatory-changes-could-see-indian-market-leader-acquiring-local-rivals.html"
            },
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https:\/\/www.developingtelecom.com\/#defaultPublisher"
            },
            "url": "https:\/\/www.developingtelecom.com\/telecom-business\/operator-news\/3673-regulatory-changes-could-see-indian-market-leader-acquiring-local-rivals.html"
        },
        {
            "@type": "Person",
            "name": "James Barton",
            "@id": "https:\/\/www.developingtelecom.com\/#james_barton_4d6427c012"
        },
        {
            "@id": "https:\/\/www.developingtelecom.com\/#defaultLogo",
            "@type": "ImageObject",
            "url": "https:\/\/developingtelecoms.com\/images\/stories\/highResLogos\/dt-site-logo-440.png",
            "width": "440",
            "height": "122"
        },
        {
            "@id": "https:\/\/www.developingtelecom.com\/#defaultPublisher",
            "@type": "Organization",
            "url": "https:\/\/www.developingtelecom.com\/",
            "logo": {
                "@id": "https:\/\/www.developingtelecom.com\/#defaultLogo"
            },
            "name": "Developing Telecoms"
        }
    ]
}
```

<!-- AI:SCHEMA:END -->