Telenor increases pressure on Unitech

Norwegian telco Telenor has approached the Delhi High Court seeking that its joint venture partner real estate company Unitech – with which it has been involved in a bitter dispute since the cancellation of the operating licences of their JV Uninor in February this year – be asked to set aside INR64 billion (USD114.62 million) or provide guarantees for this amount. The Economic Times reports that Telenor filed an indemnity claim against Unitech earlier this year, accusing it of fraud and seeking INR64 billion in damages. The Norwegian telco’s recent move was spurred by concerns that the company might not be able to pay up should it lose the case, estimating that its market capitalisation was INR48 billion and claiming that this was lower than the real estate firm’s debts. Telenor went on to add that Unitech’s shares in Uninor had already been seized by the income tax department over unpaid taxes amounting to INR7.01 billion.