New Delhi: The Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the controversy over foreign shareholding in mobile telecom firm Hutch-Essar was just a case of transfer of shares from one party to another and that there was no FDI involved.

About the delay in decision by Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB he said there was no need for an urgency and that the law ministry had given its view only recently which it needed time to study.

FIPB has deferred the decision for the third time to examine the law ministry''s views on the foreign shareholding in India''s fourth-largest mobile company.

Vodafone in February this year bought a direct 52 per cent stake in the mobile joint venture for an enterprise value of $18.3 billion.

FIPB, whose approval is necessary to complete the deal, is looking into the minority 12.6 per cent stake held jointly by Hutch-Essar managing director Asim Ghosh and Max Group chairman Analjit Singh to see if they are acting as the front companies of Hutch (earlier) and now of Vodafone.