LONDON - Piramal Enterprises, the largest minority investor in Vodafone India, said Thursday that it had agreed to sell its entire stake in the business to the British telecommunications company Vodafone.
Piramal Enterprises, the flagship company of the billionaire Ajay Piramal’s conglomerate Piramal Group, will divest its 11 percent stake for 89 billion rupees, or about $1.48 billion. Vodafone India is the second largest telecommunications company in the country, after Bharti Airtel.
Piramal nearly doubled its investment, purchasing the stake in two tranches in the 2012 fiscal year, for about 58.6 billion rupees.
“The equity purchase in Vodafone was consistent with our objective of making investments that offer opportunity to generate attractive long term return on equity,†Mr. Piramal, the Piramal Group chairman, said in a statement. “I am glad to say that we have delivered against our targeted returns with this investment.â€
Foreign ownership of telecommunications companies in India had been capped at 74 percent until last year.
Vodafone owns about 64 percent of the Indian unit and controls an additional 20 percent through an affiliate. The Indian government approved a proposal by Vodafone to take full control of the unit earlier this year.
