Vodafone pledges $5B for control of India operations

Vodafone Group plc (VOD) has pledged $5 billion to acquire the remaining interest in Indian wireless operator Vodafone Essar Ltd. it did not previously control.
The move was initiated by the Essar Group excising its put option on the 22% of the operations it controlled, which then triggered Vodafone to excise its call option on the remaining 11%. Vodafone had originally acquired 67% of the carrier in early 2007 through the $11.1 billion acquisition from Hutchison Telecom International Ltd.
Vodafone said that it expects final payment for the deal to occur by November.
Vodafone Essar is India’s third-largest wireless operator with 118 million customers, or roughly 16.7% market share, at the end of 2010. India’s total mobile penetration rate stood at just under 60% at the end of last year.
Vodafone currently in one of the world’s largest mobile operators with approximately 359 million customers in its controlled and jointly controlled markets across 30 countries, including a 45% stake in domestic wireless operator Verizon Wireless.