NTT DoCoMo, Japan's biggest mobile phone operator, is in talks to buy a stake in India's Tata Teleservices in a deal that may exceed $933 million, company sources said. The news boosted shares in a unit of Tata Teleservices, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra), by as much as 4% in Indian market.
DoCoMo is increasingly expanding its overseas presence as growth in the Japanese market slows, and the Tata deal would follow its $350 million investment in Bangladesh's No. 3 cellphone carrier TM International (Bangladesh) Ltd. The sources said DoCoMo's investment would likely only amount to a minority stake and it was unclear if the Japanese firm would clinch the deal as other carriers were keen to take a stake in sixth-largest player Tata Teleservices, part of the Tata Group conglomerate. DoCoMo, which competes with KDDI Corp and Softbank Corp, said in June it would seek more acquisitions overseas and particularly in Asia, and it will look into China and India if the chance arose.
India is the second-biggest market in the world after China, and the market is growing some 50% annually as only 23% of the population are now carrying cellphone. Demand for data communication is expected to show explosive growth after 2009 when 3G services starts, enabling faster transmission.
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