Tata’s offer to buy DOCOMO’s stake in TTSL rejected by RBI

Tata Sons, the holding company of Tata Group, the majority owner of Indian-based Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL), has had its offer to buy out fellow TTSL shareholder, NTT DOCOMO of Japan, rejected by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The Economic Times reports that Tata proposed to pay a higher than ‘fair value’ price of INR58.05 (USD0.93) per share for DOCOMO’s 26.5% stake in TTSL, only to have the RBI reject the offer after being told to ‘stick to the rules’ by the finance ministry. The Japanese company’s stake in TTSL had previously been independently valued at just INR23.34 per share. A Tata Sons spokesman commented: ‘This issue will now have to be resolved in the arbitration [court] between the parties. Steps towards initiating arbitration have been taken.’