Mumbai: British telecom giant Vodafone''s acquisition of a majority stake in Hutch-Essar cleared the last hurdle with finance minister P Chidambaram giving his nod for the deal, hardly a week after the foreign investment promotion board (FIPB) gave its green signal.

In February, Vodafone had announced its acquisition of 52 per cent controlling stake in Hutch-Essar, India''s fourth largest mobile service provider, for $11.1 billion, from Hong Kong-based Hutchison International.

The Essar group of the Ruias hold a 33 per cent stake in the company of which 22 per cent is through a foreign entity, Essar Mauritius.

The remaining equity of 12.26 per cent is owned by Asim Ghosh, managing director of Hutch-Essar, and Max India chairman Analjit Singh, who had taken Hutchison International as the guarantor for obtaining a loan to buy the stake.

The FIPB, headed by finance secretary Ashok Jha, had raised doubts if the telecom FDI limit of 74 per cent would be adhered to after the acquisition. It also wanted to make sure that the shareholding pattern of the deal does not violate the Indian telecom FDI norms.

The matter was also challenged in a public interest litigation by an NGO called Telecom Watchdog.