Norway's Telenor Group Friday said its Indiansubsidiary, Telewings Communications, has entered into a partnership withLakshdeep Investments and Finance.
"Lakshdeep will contribute an agreed amount of equityinto Telewings," Telenor said in a statement.
Lakshdeep Investments and Finance is controlled by SudhirValia, brother-in-law of Sun Pharma promoter Dilip Sanghvi.
"This is a financial investment by Valia in hispersonal capacity," said Telenor.
Lakshdeep thus replaces Unitech as Telenor's Indian partnerso that the company can bid jointly for new mobile telephone licenses nextmonth.
In February, the Supreme Court cancelled joint ventureUninor's licenses granted in the 2008 licensing round under the thencommunications minister A. Raja.
Earlier this month, Telenor ended its joint venture withUnitech after the realtor agreed to transfer its business in Uninor to a newentity controlled by the former.
Telenor Group will own 74 percent in the new joint venture.
"Telenor Group will maintain operational control andupon necessary approvals all assets of Unitech Wireless (Uninor) will betransferred to this company for seamless continuity of operations," saidthe statement.
Telewings has already applied for prequalification toparticipate in the upcoming spectrum auction.
However, a final decision on "whether to participate ornot will be made before the auction starts," said Telenor.