Mahendra Nahata is selling his stake in Datacom to the Dhoots, reports Economic Times, ending a 15-month long dustup between the two stakeholders. The news has not been confirmed, and the promoters have not announced any developments to the stake settlement. According to sources quoted by ET, a token payment has been made, and money will be paid to Nahata in tranches. The Dhoot family owns Videcon, which is planning a foray into the DTH space and has set up an ecommerce website EDigiworld. Nahata in March denied news reports that he would sell his stake. Datacom has, however, hired Morgan Stanley to find a strategic partner. We had read that this was on the anvil six months ago when the promoters had agreed to compromise by merging HFCL Infotel’s operations in Punjab circle with Datacom, and offloading its Rs. 4 billion debt to Datacom in exchange for Nahata's 36 per cent equity stake. Has The Delay Hurt Or Helped Datacom? Datacom owns licences for 22 circles but has not commercially rolled out services. It has also not raised any international investment, and the other rookie players it started out with such as Shyam Sistema (now MTS), Loop Telecom and Unitech Wireless have already raised money. MTS and Loop Mobile have started expanding operations. The delay has hurt Datacin by turning off potential investors and reducing financial flexibility, but perhaps it has also helped tide over a difficult fundraising scenario. It may also be the case that valuations may have improved since the beginning of this year. Policy…
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