Hutchison Telecommunications International, the Hong Kong-based company, has booked a tax-free windfall of HK$69.3bn (US$8.9bn) from the sale of its Indian mobile phone arm to Vodafone.

Tim Pennington, HTIL chief financial officer, said because the transaction involved the sale of “one off-shore vehicle to another off-shore vehicle”, the company was advised it did not have to make any provisions for capital gains tax.