NEW DELHI, Feb 3 � Leading foreign telecom giants �Telenor of Norway and Sistema of Russia � today asserted that they would take legal measures to protect their investments in Indian operations with one of them speaking of �alternative� plans to quit India.
Telenor is a majority stakeholder in Uninor joint venture with Unitech and Sistema in Sistema-Shyam telecom that offers telecom services under MTS brand.
�Telenor Group wants to be clear that the Uninor operations are continuing. Our intention is to fight to protect our lawful investments in the country. We are looking to the Government to arrive at a fair solution. We expect that the intention remains of bringing new competition to India,� Telenor Group said in a statement.
Sistema claims to have pumped in over USD 2.5 billion (about Rs 12,500 crore) and Telenor has exposure of over Rs 14,000 crore in Indian services.
Both Uninor�s 22 and Sistema-Shyam�s 21 licences have been cancelled as per yesterday�s Supreme Court judgement.
Echoing similar sentiments, Russian conglomerate Sistema said in a statement that �it will contest this order by pursuing all available legal remedies. In the meantime, Indian operations will remain business as usual.� � PTI
