Rupee Seen Extending World’s Best Gain on Modi Win: India Credit

By Shikhar Balwani and Divya Patil - May 18, 2014

Aberdeen Asset Management Plc, Mirae Asset Management Co. and Nomura Holdings Inc. predict the rupee will extend a world-beating rally as India’s clearest election verdict in three decades boosts confidence.
Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party got 282 of 543 parliamentary seats in the world’s biggest-ever vote, compared with 272 needed to form a government, as voters punished the incumbent Congress party for graft scandals and the worst economic slowdown in a decade. The rupee surged 2.1 percent last week to 58.78 per dollar, the best performance among 78 global currencies tracked by Bloomberg.
The BJP has garnered the first single-party majority since 1984 and that’s boosting bets the new administration will pursue policies to improve the economy without being constrained by coalition politics, according to Deutsche Bank AG. Nomura, the second-most accurate rupee forecaster in the last four quarters, and Aberdeen Asset see the currency rising toward 57 per dollar by year-end, while Mirae Asset predicts a rally to 55.
“The election result was clearly better than we expected,” Craig Chan, Nomura’s Singapore-based head of currency strategy for Asia ex-Japan, said in a May 16 e-mail interview. “The outlook for reforms, potential foreign inflows and growth prospects will be even more positive now.”

More Bullish

Japan’s largest brokerage is projecting bigger rupee gains now than it did in April, when it had estimated the currency would end the year at 59.5. The exchange rate has rebounded 17 percent from a record low of 68.845 reached last year, when India’s slowing growth, relatively high inflation and current-account deficit fueled capital outflows.
The rupee’s recovery from last year’s slump was powered by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh government’s efforts to narrow the current-account gap and the central bank’s measures to rein in price pressures. The shortfall probably shrank to $35 billion in the year through March from an unprecedented $88 billion in the preceding period, Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said last quarter. Wholesale inflation slowed to 5.2 percent in April from 7.5 percent in November after the Reserve Bank of India raised interest rates three times since September.
International investors, who pared holdings of rupee debt by a record $8 billion in 2013, have already plowed back $5.3 billion so far this year, according to exchange data. Aberdeen Asset and Mirae Asset see inflows into bonds increasing after the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance’s victory.

‘Strong Position’

“With such a strong showing, the BJP and the NDA alliance are obviously in a strong position to make crucial progress on the various reform areas,” Kenneth Akintewe, a Singapore-based fund manager at Aberdeen, which oversaw $541 billion as of March, said in an e-mail interview on May 16.
A decisive election victory for the BJP would be a “catalyst” for a long-term advance in the rupee toward 40 to 45 per dollar, Adam Gilmour, Citigroup Inc.’s head of Asia-Pacific currency and derivatives sales, said in a March 12 interview in Singapore.
A potential pickup in fund inflows after the election will probably drive the 10-year (GIND10YR) government bond yield to 8 percent, a level last seen in July, as long as inflation doesn’t quicken, according to Mirae Asset. The rate on the benchmark 8.83 percent notes due November 2023 has risen one basis point, or 0.01 percentage point, this month to 8.83 percent in Mumbai.

Inflows Seen

“India will see more positives emerging and foreign inflows rising after this election result so long as the government and the central bank work in tandem,” Kim Jin Ha, a global fixed-income fund manager in Seoul at Mirae, which oversees about $59 billion, said by e-mail on May 16.
While the election results have buoyed optimism about India’s policies, the central bank may restrain exchange-rate gains that would threaten the nation’s exports, Sameer Goel, Deutsche Bank’s head of Asian interest-rate and foreign-exchange research in Singapore, said in a telephone interview on May 16.
The RBI intervened in the foreign-exchange market on May 16 to curb currency volatility, limiting gains in the rupee, according to four traders who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. India’s currency reserves have risen $39 billion from a three-year low in September to $314 billion, the latest official figures show, signaling the monetary authority has bought dollars.

Central Bank

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said in an interview with the Mint newspaper published last month that a rupee level of 55 per dollar would be “too strong.” He said a study by economists at the finance ministry had suggested a range of 60 to 62 was “reasonable,” after taking into account inflation and export competitiveness.
“There are still uncertainties regarding the longer-term policies of the new government and whether” improvements in external finances and inflation can be sustained, Paul Mackel, head of Asian currency research in Hong Kong at HSBC Holdings Plc, said in a phone interview on May 16. “The central bank has been more inclined to smooth exchange-rate volatility and I think a combination of those factors will encourage the rupee to slowly drift lower towards the end of this year.”
Bond risk in India is falling. Credit-default swaps insuring the notes of State Bank of India, a proxy for the sovereign, against non-payment for five years fell 41 basis points last week to 208, according to data provider CMA.
“It certainly looks like the near-term bias will be for the rupee to appreciate further,” Jonathan Cavenagh, a Singapore-based currency strategist at Westpac Banking Corp., said in a phone interview on May 16. “For the next one or two weeks, we are going to be in an euphoria mode and that will drive the dollar down in India. I think the RBI will use this as an opportunity to accumulate foreign-exchange reserves and smoothen volatility, but that will not stop the trend.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Shikhar Balwani in Mumbai at sbalwani@bloomberg.net; Divya Patil in Mumbai at dpatil7@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Regan at jregan19@bloomberg.net Anil Varma

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India’s Stock Market Rises in Volatile Election-Day Trade

By Rajhkumar K Shaaw and Santanu Chakraborty - May 16, 2014

Indian stocks rose to record highs in a volatile trading session after vote counts showed the main opposition alliance set for the biggest election win in 30 years. The rupee strengthened, while the India VIX tumbled.
The S&P BSE Sensex (SENSEX) increased 0.9 percent to 24,121.74, after swinging between a gain of 6.1 percent and a loss of 0.1 percent. The rupee rose 0.9 percent against the dollar. The India VIX sank 34 percent as the stock market moved in a narrower trading range than the last election in 2009, when the Sensex surged 17 percent. The Bank of New York Mellon India ADR Index gained 3.4 percent after the close of trading in Mumbai.
The value of Indian equities has climbed by more than $330 billion since Sept. 13, when the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party named Narendra Modi as its candidate for prime minister. While analysts have speculated Modi will do more than the ruling Congress Party to revive economic growth, some investors sold shares today to lock-in gains, said Alex Mathews, the head of research at Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services Ltd. Tom DeMark, the creator of indicators to show market turning points, said on May 13 that stocks may have a “final impulse to the upside,” followed by a retreat of about 11 percent.

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“The market has largely discounted quite a lot of the positive news,” Sam Mahtani, a director of emerging markets at F&C Asset Management Plc, which oversees about $150 billion, said in a telephone interview from London. “There has to be little bit of consolidation and profit taking.”

Sector Rotation

Lenders including ICICI Bank Ltd. (ICICIBC) were among today’s biggest gainers as investors speculated faster economic growth will lead to higher credit quality, while power companies surged on bets that improved infrastructure will boost electricity use. Adani Enterprises Ltd. (ADE), one of the biggest companies in Modi’s home state of Gujarat, climbed 5.8 percent to the highest level since September 2011.
Technology, health-care and consumer staples companies, favored industries as India’s economy slowed to near the weakest pace in a decade, retreated today as investors shifted money into stocks that are more geared to recovery. Infosys Ltd. (INFO), an exporter of software services, and ITC Ltd. (ITC), a producer of cigarettes, were the biggest drags on the Sensex.

Reshaping the World's Biggest Democracy

Trading in CNX Nifty index shares surged to levels 165 percent higher than the 30-day average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The gauge’s intraday swing was the biggest since an eight-second crash in October 2012, which was spurred by mishandled trades and briefly erased more than $50 billion of value.

Relative Value

Global funds bought a net 36.3 billion rupees of Indian stocks today, the highest single-day inflow since March 21, according to provisional data from the exchanges.
The Sensex has climbed about 14 percent this year and trades at 15 times projected 12-month earnings, the most expensive level since 2011. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index is valued at 11 times.
The BJP and its allies lead in 334 of 543 seats up for grabs, more than the 272 needed for a majority, according to NDTV. Proponents see Modi, who has overseen annual economic growth of 10 percent as the head of Gujarat state since 2001, as a leader who can speed up infrastructure projects, while opponents blame him for 2002 riots that killed about 1,000 people, mostly Muslims. Modi rejects accusations of any wrongdoing.

Confidence Boost

Public works projects helped Gujarat outpace the national economic growth rate in 11 of the past 12 financial years for which data is available. The BJP has pledged to construct 100 new cities, build high-speed railway lines and roll out a national fiber-optic network.
“If the government can really push itself, then confidence will increase further,” Rakesh Arora, the head of research at Macquarie Capital Securities India Pvt. and the most accurate forecaster for the Sensex in 2013, said by phone. He raised his Nifty target for the year to March 2015 to 8,400 from 7,200. The gauge rose 1.1 percent to a record 7,203 today.
Weak growth and Asia’s second-fastest inflation have eroded purchasing power in a nation where more than 800 million people live on less than $2 per day.
Projects worth $230 billion are awaiting clearance as lawmaking stalled in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s coalition, data from the Cabinet Committee on Investment show. Subsidy bills rose fivefold in the past decade to 2.6 trillion rupees ($44 billion) a year, a period in which the Indian economy only doubled in size.

‘Very Excited’

“This is comparable to the election of Ronald Reagan in the U.S. or Margaret Thatcher in the U.K. in terms of the pro-business stance we expect the Modi government will take,” Sam Gupta, the chief investment officer of Grand Trunk Capital, a Palo Alto, California-based investment firm that invests in India, wrote in an e-mail. “We are very excited about the opportunities this presents.”
Nine rounds of voting started on April 7 to pick representatives in the world’s largest democracy. Turnout averaged a record 66.4 percent, the Election Commission of India said, compared with 58 percent in 2009 and the previous high of 64 percent in 1984. A Congress party spokeswoman conceded defeat today, before the final tally was released.
“Modi is very popular,” Adrian Lim, a Singapore-based money manager at Aberdeen Asset Management Plc, which oversees $322 billion worldwide, said in an interview on Bloomberg TV India today. “So many people within the country are tired of what has happened over the last two to three years, where administration and governance has taken a back seat.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Rajhkumar K Shaaw in Mumbai at rshaaw@bloomberg.net; Santanu Chakraborty in Mumbai at schakrabor11@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Patterson at mpatterson10@bloomberg.net Richard Richtmyer

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Reliance, Vodafone Spats Await Next Government of India

India’s next government faces an early test of its ability to boost economic confidence after Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD) sought arbitration to resolve high-profile disputes.
Reliance, operator of the nation’s biggest gas field, issued an arbitration notice on May 9 over a delayed gas-price increase it says imperils almost $4 billion of investment this year. Reliance acted two days after Vodafone said it had chosen international arbitration for a protracted $2.4 billion tax row.
India’s benchmark S&P BSE Sensex (SENSEX) equity index has surged to a record as investors bet the Narendra Modi-led opposition Bharatiya Janata Party will take power after the general election ending May 16 and adopt policies to ease spats. The risk is that the complexity of the disagreements will prevent rapid resolutions, eventually denting the rise in optimism.
“Overseas investors are looking for a stable government and investor-friendly policies,” said H.P. Ranina, a Mumbai-based lawyer at India’s Supreme Court who’s served on the boards of companies and the Reserve Bank of India. “It’s for the government to decide whether to go for arbitrations or to develop policies in a manner that arbitrations don’t arise.”
Reliance, controlled by India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, is stepping up pressure for implementation of a decision by the Cabinet last year that about doubles rates for locally produced gas. Anti-graft politician Arvind Kejriwal has attacked the plan as unfair for consumers facing inflation of more than 8 percent.

Shares Surge

Reliance’s shares rose as much as 5.2 percent to 1,049 rupees, the highest intraday price since April 8, 2011, and traded at 1,043.45 rupees as of 9:37 a.m. in Mumbai. The stock has gained 16 percent this year, compared with a 10 percent increase in the S&P BSE Sensex.
Newbury, England-based Vodafone’s quarrel dates back to its 2007 purchase of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. (13)’s Indian assets.
Vodafone has said it didn’t owe taxes because the acquisition of Hong Kong-based Hutchison’s business was between two international companies, with the target asset registered in the Cayman Islands. India responded in 2012 with a law enabling it to retroactively tax cross-border deals.

New Government

“Any new government will have to resolve pending issues and ensure economic policies are put back on track,” said Deven Choksey, managing director of Mumbai-based brokerage K.R. Choksey Shares & Securities Pvt.
The rupee has strengthened 3.2 percent against the dollar, as investors speculate that a Modi-led administration will boost economic growth from close to a decade low and curb corruption scandals.
Opinion polls through mid-April, the latest available, signaled the BJP would emerge as the largest party in the lower house of parliament while falling short of a majority. Exit polls are due later today and ballots are counted May 16.
A Modi-led government would provide stable policies, Arun Jaitley, a BJP leader, said in an interview last month.
Mumbai-based Reliance, BP Plc (BP/) and Niko Resources Ltd. (NKO) said in their notice that clarity in pricing is needed for $8 billion to $10 billion of investment over the next few years that aims to “significantly increase production” from the KG-D6 deposit in the Bay of Bengal. Output there has slumped in recent years.
Gas is used mainly for power and fertilizer production in energy-deficient India, and pricing is a sensitive topic, given more than 800 million of its people live on less than $2 a day.

Gas Price

Output from the KG-D6 block is currently sold at $4.2 per million British thermal units. The Election Commission in March told the oil ministry to defer an increase until the vote ends.
Reliance’s earnings per share would rise by 1.5 percent in the year that began April 1 for every $1 increase in gas prices at a production rate of 15 million cubic meters a day, Mumbai-based IIFL Holdings Ltd. estimates.
Arbitration would take a few months to get initiated and probably last about a year, according to the lawyer Ranina.
The next government faces the task of spurring more investment into Indian industries and speeding up stalled projects. The $1.8 trillion economy expanded 4.9 percent in the fiscal year ended March, below the past decade’s average of 7.6 percent.
To contact the reporter on this story: Anoop Agrawal in Mumbai at aagrawal8@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jason Rogers at jrogers73@bloomberg.net Indranil Ghosh, Sunil Jagtiani

India’s Nifty Futures Rise After Indexes Snap Five-Day Decline

By Santanu Chakraborty - May 5, 2014

Indian stock-index futures rose after benchmark gauges rebounded from a five-day slide yesterday.
SGX CNX Nifty Index futures for May delivery advanced 0.4 percent to 6,745 at 10:25 a.m. in Singapore. The underlying CNX Nifty Index on the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. added 0.1 percent to 6,699.35 yesterday. The S&P BSE Sensex (SENSEX) gained 0.2 percent to 22,445.12. The Bank of New York Mellon India ADR Index of U.S.-traded shares climbed 0.5 percent to 1,215.26.
Housing Development Finance Corp., the nation’s biggest mortgage lender, reports earnings today. The Sensex recovered from its longest stretch of declines since January amid an election that opinion polls suggest will hand power to the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, ending the Congress Party’s decade-long rule.
“The overall market uptrend remains intact and we expect buying to emerge after some correction,” Rakesh Goyal, senior vice president at Bonanza Portfolio Ltd., said by e-mail. “The election results may lead to higher volatility.”
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Congress party may be headed for its worst-ever electoral performance as voters punish the government for a series of graft scandals, Asia’s fastest consumer inflation and slowing growth.
The BJP is favored by investors seeking change to revive an economy expanding at the slowest pace in a decade. Election results are due on May 16.
Housing Development Finance may report quarterly profit of 16.7 billion rupees ($277 million), according to a Bloomberg survey of 29 analysts.
Overseas investors bought a net $77.1 million of Indian shares on May 2, the ninth straight day of purchases, taking this year’s inflows to $5.4 billion.
The Sensex has climbed 6 percent this year and trades at 14 times projected 12-month profits, compared with the average multiple of 14.5 over the past five years. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index has dropped 0.3 percent in 2014 and is valued at 10.5 times.
To contact the reporter on this story: Santanu Chakraborty in Mumbai at schakrabor11@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Patterson at mpatterson10@bloomberg.net Chan Tien Hin

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India’s Rupee Has Biggest Weekly Gain in a Month on Dollar Sales

By Divya Patil - May 2, 2014

India’s rupee completed its biggest weekly gain in a month on speculation exporters repatriated overseas income to benefit from a more favorable exchange rate.
Local companies may have stepped up dollar sales after the rupee weakened 0.7 percent in April, the steepest slide since January, according to Mecklai & Mecklai Ltd. The rupee also advanced after the Federal Reserve reinforced its commitment this week to record-low borrowing costs.
“Exporters are selling dollars heavily,” said Amogh Moghe, a Mumbai-based currency trader at Mecklai & Mecklai. “The Fed’s assurance that key rates will be kept at zero also aided the currency’s appreciation” as traders look to U.S. jobs data due later today, he said.
The rupee rose 0.8 percent this week to 60.1625 per dollar in Mumbai and climbed 0.3 percent from April 30, according to prices from local banks compiled by Bloomberg. It was the biggest weekly advance since March 28. Indian financial markets were shut yesterday for a public holiday.
One-month implied volatility, a gauge of expected moves in the exchange rate used to price options, fell 15 basis points, or 0.15 percentage point, today to 11.8475 percent. It declined 27 basis points this week.
The U.S. Labor Department may report today that nonfarm payrolls increased by 218,000 in April, up from 192,000 the previous month, according to the median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg survey.
The Fed cut its monthly bond-buying program by a further $10 billion this week to $45 billion and said more reductions in “measured steps” are likely. It said in a statement on April 30 that it will keep the benchmark rate close to zero for a “considerable time” after its bond-purchasing program ends.
Three-month offshore non-deliverable forwards on the rupee rose 1.1 percent this week to 61.25 per dollar, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The contracts advanced 0.2 percent today. Forwards are agreements to buy or sell assets at a set price and date. Non-deliverable contracts are settled in the greenback.
To contact the reporter on this story: Divya Patil in Mumbai at dpatil7@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Amit Prakash at aprakash1@bloomberg.net Simon Harvey, Sam Nagarajan

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Bharti Profit Misses Estimates as Africa Growth Slows By Bianca Vázquez Toness - Apr 29, 2014

Bharti Airtel Ltd. (BHARTI), India’s biggest mobile-phone operator, reported fiscal fourth-quarter profit that missed analyst estimates as revenue growth at its African business slowed.

Net income rose 89 percent to 9.62 billion rupees ($159 million) in the three months ended March 31, New Delhi-based Bharti said yesterday. That lagged behind the 9.96 billion-rupee median of 26 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Billionaire Chairman Sunil Mittal’s company was among carriers that were prohibited from selling new SIM cards in March in Nigeria, the largest telecommunications market in Africa, after missing service quality goals. Bharti, which operates in 17 African nations, is competing with carriers including MTN Group Ltd. (MTN) to woo users on the continent.

“Africa didn’t do well,” said Daljeet Kohli, head of research at India Nivesh Securities in Mumbai. ’’That’s a disappointment because many people were looking for Africa to stabilize, that this time they would could come to a break-even point. But that has not happened, so Africa will continue to be a drag on the good work that Airtel does in India.’’

Sales increased 13 percent to 222.2 billion rupees. That missed the 223.9 billion-rupee median analyst estimates.

Shares of Bharti fell 0.8 percent to 335 rupees in Mumbai yesterday, before the earnings announcement. The stock has gained 1.4 percent this year, compared with the 6.1 percent increase in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex Index.

Africa Slowdown

Revenue in Africa increased 16.4 percent in the three months ended March 31, slowing from a 17.2 percent pace in the preceding quarter.

“The quarter was impacted by the seasonal downturn in parts of Africa and regulatory interventions in Nigeria,” Christian de Faria, chief executive officer of Bharti’s Africa business, said in a statement. “Our teams remain focused on accelerating growth through improving the quality of network, growing the data business.”

Bharti is benefiting from an addition in subscribers as well as an increase in voice and data usage in India. Smartphone sales in the South Asian nation almost tripled in 2013, according to International Data Corp., indicating more phone users will use their mobile devices to download videos, check e-mails and use the Internet.

Mobile data revenue in the home market jumped 89 percent from a year earlier to 13.3 billion rupees, the company said.

Less Competition

Phone-service providers in India have been curtailing free minutes as competitive intensity eases. India’s Supreme Court in 2012 canceled 122 licenses to provide wireless services amid graft charges. Reliance Communications Ltd. (RCOM), India’s third-biggest phone service provider by market value, this month increased some tariffs by as much as 20 percent.

Bharti’s average revenue per user in India increased 1.6 percent in the most recent quarter to 196 rupees.

While revenue per minute for voice calls at its India operations rose to 37.07 paise in the quarter from a year earlier, it was less than the 37.13 paise in the three months ended Dec. 31.

Bharti in February agreed to acquire Loop Mobile (India) Ltd.’s 3 million users in Mumbai, India’s financial hub.

Bharti, Vodafone Group Plc’s local unit and Idea Cellular Ltd. together account for more than half the total mobile-phone subscribers in the country.India had 903 million mobile-phone connections at the end of February, according to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

In February, operators including Bharti and Vodafone won bids for wireless spectrum. Bharti will spend 185.3 billion rupees on the purchase, the company said Feb. 13. It will pay 54.3 billion rupees upfront and the balance will be paid in 10 annual installments, starting after two years, it said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bianca Vázquez Toness in New Delhi at btoness@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Tighe at mtighe4@bloomberg.net Subramaniam Sharma, Dick Schumacher

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Carlyle, Axiata Said to Enter Bids for India’s Viom Networks By George Smith Alexander and Jonathan Browning - Apr 28, 2014

Carlyle Group LP (CG) and Axiata Group Bhd. (AXIATA) are among bidders for a majority stake in India’s Viom Networks Ltd., which owns mobile-phone towers in the country, said people with knowledge of the matter.

Carlyle and Axiata submitted first-round bids, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the matter is private. Gurgaon-based Viom, controlled by Indian carrier Tata Teleservices Ltd. and SREI Infrastructure Finance Ltd. (SREI), may receive an equity valuation of as much as 80 billion rupees ($1.3 billion) in a sale, two of the people said.

“Tower companies are basically a good play on the emerging data story,” Shobhit Khare, an analyst at Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd. in Mumbai, said by phone. They will benefit from wireless carriers’ spending on high-speed fourth-generation networks over the next three years, Khare said.

The bidders are seeking control of a company that owns more than 40,000 towers as new entrants including billionaire Mukesh Ambani join the crowded Indian cellular services market. Smartphone shipments to India almost tripled last year to 44 million units, according to International Data Corp.

SREI Infrastructure rose 7.9 percent, the most since March 26, to 33.45 rupees in Mumbai trading yesterday. The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex index fell 0.3 percent.

Tata Teleservices may hold a stake in Viom after the sale, while some of the company’s private-equity investors will exit, one person said. Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte, Macquarie SBI Infrastructure Fund and the Oman Investment Fund are among Viom’s shareholders, according to itswebsite.

Axiata Towers

Viom had less than 65 billion rupees of debt at the end of March, according to spokesman Shudeep Majumdar. Tata Teleservices holds a 53 percent stake in Viom, according to a March 28 report from Standard & Poor’s local unit Crisil Ltd.

Customers that use Viom’s towers include Tata Teleservices and Telenor ASA (TEL)’s local unit, according to one of the people.

Sarika Kapoor Choksi, a spokeswoman for Tata Group, referred queries to Viom. Viom has hired advisers to explore capital-raising options including an initial public offering in London or New York, Majumdar said. He had no comment on bids from Carlyle and Axiata.

SREI Infrastructure Chairman Hemant Kanoria said Viom will seek to raise funds overseas after India’s elections and plans haven’t been concluded yet. Carlyle declined to comment in an e-mailed statement. Faridah Hashim, a spokeswoman for Kuala Lumpur-based Axiata, declined to comment.

Axiata also has operations in Indonesia and is the second-largest shareholder in India’s Idea Cellular Ltd. The company plans to list its tower assets within two years, James Maclaurin, chief financial officer at the time, said in October.

To contact the reporters on this story: George Smith Alexander in Mumbai at galexander11@bloomberg.net; Jonathan Browning in Hong Kong atjbrowning9@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Philip Lagerkranser at lagerkranser@bloomberg.net Ben Scent, Dick Schumacher

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