Telekom Malaysia (TM) will pay Rs 150 per share for a less than 15% stake in Idea Celluar, valuing the AV Birla Group company at Rs 40,000 crore or $9.3 billion. Idea will then buy out the Modis’ 40.8% stake in Spice Communications, and TM will have 20% equity in the entity formed after merging Spice and Idea. “TM will invest around $2.2 billion in Idea and get shares in the merged company,” sources close to the development told ET. Since TM’s stake will increase through a merger, an open offer will not be required. “While TM will buy less than 15% through preferential offer, it will get a little over 5% through merger. The preferential offer for TM was a pre-condition for Spice-Idea merger as TM is keen on a bigger India play. This was the only way Idea could have got Spice, which it has been eyeing for over an year now,” said sources. With this, TM’s three-year old dream of partnering Idea Cellular will come true. Way back in June 2005, TM, in a consortium with Singapore Technologies Telemedia, wanted to acquire 47.7% stake in Idea Cellular. They wanted to buy out the stake of US telecom giant AT&T — now Cingular Wireless — for about $390 million. However, the Department of Telecom (DoT) raised objections to the deal and TM’s ambitions could not be fulfilled. […]