NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Vodafone , which directly owns 52 percent of its Indian mobile joint venture, is buying a 6 percent stake from two of its associates for 8.62 billion rupees (110 million pounds), the Economic Times reported on Wednesday.
Asim Ghosh, the former managing director of the Indian venture who owns 4.68 percent of Vodafone Essar, and Indian businessman Analjit Singh, who holds 7.58 percent, would sell 49 percent of their holdings to Vodafone, the paper said.
Vodafone took over the Indian firm in 2007 by buying a controlling stake from Hutchison Telecom. To meet India's foreign ownership limits, it took a direct 52 percent stake and had options over 15 percent held by Ghosh, Singh and infrastructure finance company IDFC .
A change in foreign ownership rules earlier this year, where indirect foreign investment routed through a company owned by Indians would be treated as local equity, made it possible for Vodafone to increase its stake, the paper said.
The paper cited an email from Vodafone saying both Ghosh and Singh wanted to exercise their options to sell a stake.
(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by John Mair)
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