The proposal was cleared by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board on Saturday. The FIPB decided to defer the application of Daewoo Power to divest 50 per cent equity to ABB Ltd. Official sources said that the power ministry sought more time as the Madhya Pradesh government had not sent its comments. Daewoo Power is setting up a 1,070 MW Korba East power project.

The board also deferred a decision on IFC's proposal to hike its stake in Global Trust Bank to 32 per cent from the present level of eight per cent as the Reserve Bank's comments are awaited.

The foreign equity in Bharti Telecom and Bharti Healthcare is being hiked from the existing 24 per cent to 49 per cent. This is being done to further consolidate the promoters' holding in the companies. The UK-based Bharti Global would be increasing the equity inBharti Telecom by injecting $10 million.

"Though the company has sought approval for increasing the foreign stake, it is just an enabling provision. The company may not exercise the option immediately," Sunil Mittal chairman Bharti group said. There is a cap of 49 per cent foreign equity participation in telecom companies. Bharti Enterprises, the holding company of various telecom ventures in the Bharti group, had made an open offer on May 18 to acquire an additional 24.53 per cent stake representing over 41.45 lakh shares at a price of Rs 95 per share in Bharti Telecom.

The company expects to complete all the formalities of the open offer by July 16. It had approached the Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for an extension of one month after the open offer concluded in mid-June. Bharti Enterprises expects to increase its equity stake in Bharti Telecom to 80 per cent after the open offer.

The promoters' holding in Bharti Enterprises before the open offer and the negotiated deals was 59.67 percent (Bharti Enterprises holding 27.43 per cent, Bharti Overseas Trading Company 27.25 per cent and Bharti Telecom Finance Ltd 4.99 per cent).