Unitech moves Company Law Board to stall Uninor sell off plan

Real estate firm Unitech, the Indian joint venture partner in Norwegian telecom operator Telenor's Indian operations Uninor Wireless, has approached the Company Law Board (CLB) seeking a restraining order on the possible auctioning or sale in the joint venture firm (See: Telelenor gets approval to sell Indian operations).

The move follows Norway's Telenor, the foreign partner in Uninor Wireless, planning to sell off it stake in the business, after it received approvals from the majority of the board members. It also invited bids from companies with a base price of Rs4,000 crore.

Unitech, which is opposing the sell off, was mulling of a legal recourse. (See: Unitech seeks injunction on Telenor plans).

On Thursday, Unitech filed a petition with the CLB, asking it to pass an order restraining a possible auctioning or any other sale or transfer of assets of Unitech Wireless, its telecom joint venture with Norwegian giant Telenor.

Unitech is the minority partner in the joint venture, with the majority of about 67.5 per cent stake held by Telenor.

''Transfer by way of auction is only a feeble attempt to malafidely colour the process of transfer of assets of Uninor as fair (though the fact remains that it is unfair, malafide and oppressive),'' Unitech said, adding a DoT approval is needed for the sales for the process.