New Delhi: After Vodafone's multi-billion dollar bet on India through its acquisition of Hutch-Essar, analysts predict that the country could emerge its largest market within one year.
India is likely to soon surpass Germany and US as Vodafone's biggest market in terms of subscribers.
However, the company might fail short of its target of becoming number one mobile player in the country.
The Macquarie Research report says, Vodafone's subscriber base in India is expected to rise to about 38 million by the end of 2007, from Hutch-Essar's current base of 25.3 million.
Currently, India is the third largest market after Germany (30.6 million) and the US (26.2 million subscribers) for Vodafone, the world's second largest mobile operator in terms of subscribers and largest in terms of revenue.
Vodafone's CEO Arun Sarin said that he aims to make the company India's largest mobile operator with a market share of 25 per cent by 2010.
However, the Macquarie Research said in a report on Indian telecom sector that Vodafone's aim to gain 25 per cent market share by 2012 was a bit unrealistic without help from M&A activities.
Vodafone reached a deal in February to acquire controlling stake in Hutch-Essar, which it plans to rename as Vodafone Essar, for about $11.1 billion in cash, while it has also announced an investment of $2billion in the next couple of years.
(With agency inputs)
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