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LONDON: British mobile phone giant Vodafone said it has agreed to buy an 11-billion-dollar controlling interest in India's Hutchison Essar, a spokesman for the company said.

Vodafone will pay 11.1 billion dollars (8.5 billion euros) to acquire Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa's 67 percent stake in India's fourth-biggest mobile phone operator, Ben Padovan, Vodafone's head of group media relations told AFP.

"We expect it (the deal) to complete in the second quarter of the year," Padovan said.

Including about two billion dollars' worth of debt that Vodafone, the world's largest mobile phone operator, is to assume, the agreement values Hutchison Essar at about 18.8 billion dollars, Padovan said.

India's Essar group, controlled by the Ruia family, holds the remaining 33 percent and was also reported to be interested in buying out the company.

Vodafone said that it would make an offer to buy out Essar's stake at a price per share equivalent to the price in its bid to acquire Hutchison Whampoa's stake.

In order to complete that move, Vodafone would also have to beat off advances from India's Reliance Communications – the country's second-largest mobile phone firm – and the Hinduja group, with interests ranging from oil to banking, in taking control of Hutchison Essar.

India has the fastest-growing mobile phone market in the world and adds seven million customers a month.

- AFP/so

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