New Delhi - Bahrain Telecommunications Company Batelco has signed a deal to buy 49 per cent in Indian mobile telephone operator S-Tel for 225 million dollars, news reports said Monday.

Batelco partnered with Millennium Private Equity, a Dubai Financial Services firm, to purchase the shares in S-Tel, the Times of India daily reported.

S-tel director Santosh Robert told the newspaper the deal would enable his Chennai-based company to partner with an experienced operator for the new GSM rollout scheduled mid-2009.

Batelco Chief Executive Peter Kaliaropoulos said the acquisition would provide significant growth opportunities for the firm in India, the fastest-growing mobile market in the world, where mobile penetration was growing at 9 million to 10 million subscribers a month.

"We explored a number of investment opportunities in India and S-Tel was judged to be the most suitable investment for Batelco's entry into the Indian telecommunications market," Kaliaropoulos was quoted by the Hindu newspaper as saying.

"Our priority now is to assist S-Tel to rapidly roll out network infrastructure and offer mobile services to customers," he added.

Batelco, the leading integrated telecommunications company in Bahrain, has operations in six markets across the Middle East. In 2008, it posted profits of 269.2 million dollars on revenue of 777.4 million dollars.

S-Tel was established to gain entry into the rapidly growing mobile markets of north-east and north-west India. The population in those areas is approximately 230 million and mobile penetration rate is less than 20 per cent, S-Tel said. (dpa)