By IANS,
Mumbai: India’s Tata Communications Tuesday said it had hiked its stake in South Africa based fixed line services operator Neotel to 61.5 percent from the earlier 49 percent.
“Tata Communications has purchased the previously held 12.5 percent stake from Two Telecom Consortium. This now makes Tata Communications a 61.5 percent shareholder in Neotel and Neotel, a subsidiary of Tata Communications Ltd.,” the company said in a regulatory statement.
Tata Communciations had bought into Neotel in 2008, but the South African firm is yet to log profits.
Neotel is the second national operator for fixed lines in South Africa and was launched in 2006.
Similar to Tata Communications in India, Neotel offers networking and data storage services to enterprises in South Africa, and competes against state-owned Telecom SA Ltd. and Internet Solutions Ltd, a part of Dimension Data that is owned by Japanese technology giant NTT.
The Indian telecom major recorded a loss of Rs. 854 crore for 2010-11, which included a loss of Rs.551 crore on account of the company’s stake in Neotel.
Tata Communications expects Neotel to turn profitable by end of the current fiscal.