Hutchison-Essar has acquired BPL Mobile's wireless businesses in a deal valued at $1 billion. Hutchison-Essar will fund the acquisition with $500 million in cash and assume $500 million of BPL's debt. The deal, India's largest domestic acquisition, comes days after Rajeev Chandrasekhar, BPL's chairman, reached an out-of-court settlement in a family dispute over control of the south Indian group's assets. It will create India's third largest cellular company and mark the latest round of consolidation. The deal gives Hutchison-Essar a presence in a majority of India's telecom circles and will allow it to establish a national footprint. In Mumbai, where both Hutchison-Essar and BPL have a presence, the enlarged entity will gain a dominant position, which is however short of the regulatory ceiling.

With 10 million subscribers, the merged entity will have a market share to rival BTVL's 12 million subscribers and equal to that of Reliance Infocomm.