According to the BBC, Vodafone has confirmed that it is considering a bid for a majority stake in Hutchison Whampoa’s Indian mobile phone business. Vodafone is expected to offer as much as $13.5bn (£6.9bn) for Hutchison Essar. This overture is consistent with Vodafone’s strategy of expanding in fast-moving markets to offset slow European growth. Whether it will be successful or not remains to be seen.

The BBC release went on to say that Vodafone already owns 10% of Bharti Airtel, the market leader in India, but is keen to build a more substantial presence in the world’s fastest growing telecoms market.  Hutchison revealed that several other companies have expressed similar interest.

Foreign firms are limited to owning 74% of Indian mobile phone providers.