Bharti Airtel To Evaluate Selling Majority Stake In Tower Arm
Bharti Airtel to consider sale of tower business to global investors.
Bharti Airtel Ltd. may look at selling a majority stake in its telecom tower arm Bharti Infratel Ltd. to a few global investors.
A committee of directors appointed by the board of the Sunil Bharti Mittal-led telecom operator gave a go-ahead to consider sale of majority stake in Bharti Infratel, the company said in a regulatory filing. It has been approached by a few global investors to acquire a significant stake, it said.
The board appointed the committee in October last year to evaluate a strategic or a majority stake sale to potential investors. The company sold 13.96 percent to a group of private equity investors—KKR and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Bharti Airtel now holds 58 percent stake in the telecom tower company directly and through its subsidiary Nettle Infrastructure Investments Ltd.
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Bharti Infratel has an enterprise value of Rs 75,276 crore. At the current market price, it’s parent’s stake in the company is valued at Rs 47,411 crore (about $7.32 billion).
Bharti Infratel also announced on Monday that it will look at buying controlling stake in Indus Towers in one or more tranches with the aim to make it a subsidiary or a wholly owned unit. The combined entity would have more than 1,60,000 towers, ahead of American Tower Corp.’s 1,44,000 across four regions.
Bharti Infratel has a 42 percent stake in Indus, while Vodafone Group Plc and Idea Cellular Ltd. together hold additional 53 percent. Bharti Infratel didn’t specify from which company it would buy shares and at what valuation.