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Mr Kishore Chaukar , Managing Director, Tata Industries, and Director, VSNL, addressing a press conference in Mumbai on Friday. — Shashi Ashiwal

Mumbai , July 1

VIDESH Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) is on its way to acquiring the second telecom operator's licence in South Africa and will look at similar opportunities elsewhere globally.

The offer for the South Africa licence that covers all telephony operations, except mobile cellular, has been obtained by VSNL. What remains is the nitty-gritty of drawing up the actual agreement, said Mr Kishore Chaukar, Director, VSNL, and Managing Director, Tata Industries Ltd, here today.

VSNL also announced that its acquisition of Tyco Global Network (TGN) which has a global cable network of nearly 60,000 km, has been completed. The cheque for the final amount of the purchase price of $130 million (over Rs 570 crore) had been handed over. The funds are from VSNL's cash reserves.

Mr Chaukar said he expected the investments to be recovered in four years' time.

TGN will become part of the federation of subsidiaries of VSNL under the umbrella of VSNL International, which is headquartered in Singapore, said Mr Chaukar. Accenture has been appointed to oversee the integration of TGN with VSNL.

The Executive Director of VSNL International, Mr Vinod Kumar, will oversee the operations of TGN, said Mr Chaukar.

The board of directors of VSNL would perhaps later take a view on whether to retain the name Tyco Global Network.

The financials of TGN with annual revenues of around $100 million will start reflecting in the results of VSNL International from the current quarter of the fiscal, said Mr Chaukar.

The Tata Indicom Enterprise Business Unit, which has been responsible for garnering business worth Rs 1,200 crore for the Tata group's telecom-related companies, will also be working closely with TGN.

Almost all of TGN's employees, numbering 220, are to be retained.

Additional investments would not be immediately required in TGN, but the network will surely be expanded in areas which show emerging commercial promise and also in areas which are seen as bottlenecks.

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