Mumbai: Tata Sons may have to pay $1.17 billion to buy its Japanese partner NTT DoCoMo’s stake in the mobile phone service venture following an international arbitration court order. In January 2015, DoCoMo had moved the London Court of International Arbitration after Tata Sons failed to find a buyer for or buy the former’s 26.5% stake in Tata Teleservices.
Tata Sons couldn’t buy the Japanese company’s equity stake as rules prevented Indian companies from buying foreign partners in local units at a pre-determined price. According to the agreement between Tata Sons and DoCoMo, if any of them decided to exit the venture, then the other had to buy the partner’s stake at 50% of the original price or at fair market price, whichever was higher.
In April 2014, DoCoMo announced plans to exit the loss-making mobile phone service venture.
