Idea Cellular today approved its amalgamation with Vodafone India and Vodafone Mobile Services. Idea said, in a regulatory filing, that the board of directors of Idea Cellular at its meeting held today approved the scheme of amalgamation of Vodafone India Limited (VIL) and its wholly owned subsidiary Vodafone Mobile Services Limited (VMSL) with the company.

The telecom biggies Vodafone India and Aditya Birla group firm Idea Cellular on Monday after their merger announced Kumar Mangalam Birla as the Chairman of the new entity.

“I am pleased and honored to be the chairman of the new company,” said Kumar Mangalam Birla who is expected to create India’s largest telecom firm with a revenue share of around 40 percent and a subscriber base of over 380 million.

“It gives me immense pleasure that we reached to an agreement to merge our companies Idea Cellular and Vodafone. We are number two and number three companies in present telecom sector with a customer base of 400 million,” he added.

The transaction is subject to necessary approvals from concerned authorities, including SEBI, Department of Telecom, RBI and others. The Idea-Vodafone merger will create the country’s biggest telecom services provider with a customer base of over 394 million.

The merger will facilitate VIL and VMSL’s entire business to be vest in the company, excluding VIL’s 42 percent share in Indus Towers.

The merger will come into effect after new shares are issued in Idea to Vodafone and would result in Vodafone deconsolidating Vodafone India.The merger is said to increase competition in the telecom space where players are in a tussle to increase revenue and subscriptions.