In a much-needed respite to Bharti Airtel for its swift satellite operations, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has cleared the merger of the VSAT (very small aperture terminal) satellite operations of Airtel with Hughes Communications India (HCIL) and the latter's arm, HCIL Comtel.
The NCLT-Delhi's principal bench has “subject to the applicable sectoral approvals, sanctioned the composite scheme of arrangement between Bharti Airtel, Bharti Airtel Services, HCIL and HCIL Comtel and their respective shareholders and creditors under Sections 230 to 232 of the Companies Act, 2013,” Bharti Airtel said in a regulatory filing on BSE Thursday.
In 2019, Bharti Airtel and HCIL had said they would combine their VSAT satellite operations in the country, in which Hughes would be the majority stakeholder. Subsequently, Airtel shareholders had backed the merger deal last August.
Earlier this year, Bharti Group-backed satellite operator, OneWeb also received funding from US-based Hughes Network Systems.
