MTNL to get listed on NYSE by early May

NEW DELHI, MARCH 24: State-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) today said the company would get listed on the New York Stock Exchan...

NEW DELHI, MARCH 24: State-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) today said the company would get listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) by May this year.

"We had earlier announced that the company would go for a listing by March 15. MTNL is currently readying the documents and we expect to file them with US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) by mid April and the listing itself would happen by early May," S Rajagopalan, chairman and managing director of MTNL said on the sidelines of the sixth annual conference on CommunicationConvergence.

In February this year, MTNL’s Board had approved the listing of the company stocks at NYSE by converting its Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) into American Depository Shares (ADS).

Following this, the company had appointed US accounting firm PriceWaterCoopers as its auditors responsible for completing all formalities related to switching of MTNL accounts to the Generally Accepted Accounting Practices (GAAP).

The current move of listing on NYSE is in tune with the commitment MTNL had made to its GDR holders in 1997.

Rajagopalan said that the company is also in the process of tying up with Satyam and Rediff for outsourcing content for its internet operations.

"We are not looking at any equity participation in these companies and the model would purely be revenue based," he said adding that the company’s home page would remain Bharat On Line.