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corrupt buggers. first they screw people in the uae and now they head outside and get trashed in the process....

Source: Maktoob Business

UAE telecom operator Etisalat’s Indian venture faces the prospect of losing its licence in an anti-corruption probe, nine months after the company invested $900 million to begin operations in India, UAE daily the National reported on Thursday.

India's Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) is investigating whether Swan Telecom, the company in which Etisalat bought a 45 percent stake, was secretly controlled by India’s second largest mobile phone firm Reliance Communications when it received its licence in January last year, the newspaper said.

If this is found to be true, Etisalat risks losing its business licence as a company is barred from owning more than 10 percent in two companies with telecom licences.

"The CVC’s technical examiner is looking into the files of Swan… We found that the allocation of 2G spectrum to private companies, including Swan, on a first-come, first-serve basis was not transparent," CVC Commissioner Pratyush Sinha said.

Etisalat DB Telecom India Pvt Ltd, as the Mumbai-based renamed venture is known, declined to comment.

"Etisalat DB is not aware of this and we cannot comment on the matter," the National quoted a spokesperson as saying.

The company has licences to offer phone, internet and a host of other services in 15 telecom circles in the country.

Etisalat has aggressively expanded overseas during the past few years, through acquisitions. It now operates in 17 countries in the Arab world, Asia and Africa. It had revenues of $7.12 billion and net profits of $2.36 billion in 2008.

cool. atlast something is being done. bloody corrupt buggers

can we name and defame some of the corrupt buggers in uae??

When you read what is written it seems to be about something that Swan Telecom has done and not Etisalat, why not wait until the investigation is complete before judging them guilty.

I think they have enough money to buy their way out of any trouble they get into.

MethoD wrote:I think they have enough money to buy their way out of any trouble they get into.

Who does?

Etisalat and any other company with a big wallet

MethoD wrote:Etisalat and any other company with a big wallet

Why are you judging against Etisalat when the article clearly states another company?

Im not judging, im just saying

Madness

When buying into a consortium the first thing the "investor" does is to engage in a process of discovery and legal due dilligence. This process does not entail just Googling the target acquistion and writing a 3 page report that says something like "Hmm seems ok to me ...." it involves detailed work by lawyers, accountants and more often than not specialist agencies who dig around behind the scene.

Swan Telecom being based in India it would have attracted a higher risk rating and thus deeper due dilligence.

To come out now and say "we are not aware of this" is total Kak and serves to deliver to us one of 3 conclusions - adequate DD was not undertaken, the DD delivered was flawed, or even worse the DD revealed the conflict of Interest and the investment went ahead anyway.

This all comes under the title "Corporate Governance - Accountability and Responsibility" both of which should sit firmly in the Etisalat camp. But will it ? Yeah right.

The bottom line - the Indian Government will look to absolve foreign partners straight off the bat for fear of endangering FDI in the future, and the owners of Reliance are too powerful to challenge locally, therefore some upper middle management bod will get dragged to the local jail and the matter will be resolved behind closed doors.

But the underlying issue is more basic - would you buy shares in Etisalat when their core investment process has been shown to be lacking ? Their comments to the Press speak to the "run for the hills" and "wasn't me" attitude to business that exists in the region and undermines investor confidence, and further enforces the unprofessional image that they have.

Really the PR comment from Etisalat should have been "this is a serious matter, we have opened an internal review and will be cooperating fully with any inquiry , but as this is a matter for the India regulator we cannot comment further."