Idea Cellular has received the department of telecom approval to raise the foreign direct investment (FDI) limit in the company to 100 per cent from the current 67.5 per cent.

The approval is for total foreign investment up to 100 per cent in Idea Cellular, and total indirect FDI in its relevant subsidiaries–Aditya Birla Telecom and Idea Cellular Infrastructure Services. The FDI approval is a major milestone in the merger process of Vodafone India with Idea Cellular, and follows other statutory approvals already received from the Sebi, NSE, BSE, CCI and NCLT Mumbai and NCLT Ahmedabad.

The merger of Vodafone India with Idea Cellular is in the final leg of regulatory approvals and is expected to complete this month, subject to the DoT’s final approval, said Idea.

Vodafone India and Idea Cellular would soon become a single merged entity and will be known as Vodafone Idea Ltd, subject to the approval of special resolution in an extraordinary general meeting to be held on June 26. The meeting will also pass a resolution seeking permission to raise Rs 15,000 crore.

The merged entity will have over 410 million customers, nearly 42 per cent cu­stomer market share (CMS) and nearly 37 per ce­nt revenue market share (RMS), making it stronger placed to take on competitive pressures triggered by Reliance Jio Infocomm, with 160m subscribers and over 16 per cent CMS and 15.3 per cent RMS. Airtel has a CMS of 29.5 per cent and an RMS of 31.5 per cent.