Mumbai: Corporate giant Essar is said to have offered to pay back Rs 1,600 crore by this week to its telecom joint venture Hutchison-Essar taken by it as deposit in lieu of the sale of BPL-mobile, a deal that was called off on Tuesday.
Sources in the know of the development said, the offer to refund the money within five days of the termination of the deal was made on Tuesday by Essar, immediately after it called off the deal to sell BPL Mobile (Mumbai) cellular operations citing that it did not get necessary approval by due date.
However, Hutch moved the case to the Mumbai High Court, which adjourned the hearing for Thursday. Hutch officials could not be contacted, while Essar officials declined comment saying the matter was sub-judiced.
Hutch is seeking to restrain Essar from the sale of BPL shares while disputing the termination of the agreement, sources said, adding that Essar is also likely to challenge the HEL as the termination notice service by it was well within its legal rights as per the agreement.
Essar recalled that HEL had earlier entered into a purchase agreement with Aircel, which was conditional on receipt of government approvals under the intra circle merger guidelines.
That deal was also called off because approvals were not received and subsequently Aircel was sold to Maxis of Malaysia at a much higher price, sources said, adding that in this case HEL did not go to court and allowed the Agreement to lapse.
Essar expressed concern over Hutch's decision to move to court in the BPL sale deal.
Comments
0 comment