India’s Tata may bid for Britain’s CWW

India’s Tata Communications is considering a bid for British telecom group Cable and Wireless Worldwide (CWW), the Times of India reported on Thursday. “The potential acquisition is in its early stages,” a source told the newspaper. CWW is a global telecoms company with more than 6,000 clients that the Times of India said could cost more than $1.2 billion. Tata Communications, part of the sprawling Tata conglomerate, is likely to be challenged in any pursuit of CWW by mobile phone giant Vodafone, which said last month that it was also considering a bid. Shares in Tata Communications rose 4.9 percent to a high of 244.2 rupees on the Bombay Stock Exchange Thursday morning. The company was unavailable for comment when contacted by AFP. The deal would be significant for Tata Communications and would help it provide a larger footprint in the voice and data carrier businesses as well as in the undersea cable network segment, the Times of India reported. It would also represent another move into Britain for the Tata Group, which already owns steelmaker Corus Steel and luxury car brands Jaguar and Land Rover.