(Reuters) - Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries made a dramatic return to telecoms, agreeing to buy Infotel Broadband, which was the only company to win a nationwide license in India's broadband wireless spectrum auction.
Soon after the winners were announced, conglomerate Reliance Industries, India's biggest company by market capitalization, said it would acquire unlisted Infotel, paying about 48 billion rupees ($1.02 billion) for fresh equity in the firm to get a 95 percent stake.
A source with direct knowledge of the matter said Reliance Industries would also pay New Delhi-based Infotel's spectrum license fee.
Mukesh Ambani, the world's fourth-richest man, was freed to enter the telecom sector last month when he ended a pact with his long-estranged brother Anil Ambani that prevented them from competing on each other's turf. When the brothers split up the family empire in 2005, Anil Ambani got control of Reliance Communications, India's second-biggest mobile phone operator.
Mukesh Ambani, who ran Reliance Comm before the split, had been widely expected to return to the telecom market.
"Telecoms has always been Mukesh's baby, but he had to give it up five years back," said Arun Kejriwal, strategist at research firm KRIS.
