(25 April 2007 1:25 pm)

NEW DELHI: A decision on Vodafone's deal to buy controlling stake in Hutch-Essar has been put off for the third time in a row by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, this time because of lack of clarity over the foreign shareholding in the company.

After the meeting, Ajay Dua, who is Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion said the Board would meet on 27 April to discuss the issue. He said the Law Ministry's views had been received just today and had been circulated among the members.

Refusing to comment on whether his Department had given its views on the issue of foreign shareholding pattern in Hutch-Essar which is the country's fourth largest mobile company, Dua added that there had to be collective decision by all the participants of FIPB.

Earlier, doubts had been raised over the minority stake of 12.6 per cent held jointly by Hutch-Essar Managing Director Asim Ghosh and Max Group chief Analjit Singh, and the Reserve Bank of India was examining the issue. It is however learnt that the Law Ministry has cleared Hutchison, which has sold a direct 52 per cent stake to UK's Vodafone for over 11 billion dollars.