C Sivasankaran, who had made investments in telecom businesses like Tata Teleservices and Aircel, has become a bankrupt.
The Chennai-based serial entrepreneur has applied for bankruptcy protection in a Seychelles court to avoid a claim by Bahrain-based telecom firm Batelco, which won a court order for its $212 million claim on its investment in S Tel.
Sivasankaran is facing the music because he stood personal guarantee for Batelco investments. As per a Supreme Court order in the 2G spectrum case, S Tel exited from the Indian telecom market as its mobile licenses were cancelled along with 121 other licenses.
On August 26, Seychelles Supreme Court chief justice D Karunakaran declared the debtor C Sivasankaran as a bankrupt, said a report in Times of India.
However, the Middle East telecom operator Batelco is going ahead to recover its funds invested in India. “Sivasankaran’s bankruptcy will not thwart our determination to recover the substantial monies that he owes us,” said Batelco chief executive Alan Whelan.
In 2009, Batelco and Millenium PE fund decided to invest $225 million ($175 million by Batelco and the rest by the fund). Since Millenium PE backed out of the deal, Batelco ended up with a 42.7 percent stake in S Tel.
In October 2011, Batelco and Siva agreed on the buy-back involving transfer of Siva’s 79 million shares in Tata Teleservices to Batelco, valuing them at $174.50 million. Later Batelco walked out of the deal with Siva because of deep dip in the valuation of Tata Teleservices.
editor@telecomlead.com
