NEW DELHI, April 10 (Reuters) - India's Piramal EnterprisesLtd said on Thursday it agreed to sell an about 11percent stake it owns in the Indian unit of Vodafone Group Plc to the British group for 89 billion rupees ($1.48billion).
The deal is part of Vodafone's plan first announced lastOctober to take full control of the unit for a total 101.41billion rupees, following a change in rules allowing foreigncompanies to own up to 100 percent of Indian telecommunicationcarriers.
Vodafone, which entered India in 2007 by buying HutchisonWhampoa's local cellular assets in a $11 billion deal,directly and indirectly owns a combined 84.5 percent of VodafoneIndia, the country's No.2 telecoms company by users and revenue.
Vodafone received the Indian cabinet's approval in Februaryto buy stakes from its minority Indian partners -- Piramal andIndian businessman Analjit Singh.
Piramal had bought the 11 percent stake in Vodafone India intwo tranches during the financial year to March 2012 for 58.64billion rupees. It is selling the stake to Prime Metals Ltd,which it said is an indirect subsidiary of Vodafone Group.
Piramal shares rose as much as 7.1 percent after theannouncement.($1 = 60.1150 Indian Rupees) (Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy in Mumbai and AdityaKondalamahanty in Bangalore; Editing by Anupama Dwivedi)