ATC completes acquisition of Vodafone India's towers
03 Apr 2018
American Tower Corporation (ATC) has completed the acquisition of Vodafone India's telecom towers, totalling 10,200 sites, in a cash deal worth Rs3,850 crore.
ATC expects to complete a similar deal with Idea Cellular in the first half of this calendar year.
On 13 November 2017, American Tower Corporation (ATC) had entered into agreements to acquire 20,135 telecom towers held by Vodafone India and Idea Cellular for about ?7,850 crore (See: Vodafone, Idea selling their tower business to ATC for Rs7,850 cr).
Prior to this on 20 March 2017, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India had announced plans to sell their individual standalone tower businesses to strengthen the combined financial position of the merged entity.
Vodafone India’s standalone tower businesses were sold by Vodafone Mobile Services Limited and Vodafone India Limited, Vodafone said in a statement.
In a separate statement, ATC also confirmed the development and added that the deal was done by ATC Telecom Infrastructure Private Limited, a majority owned Indian subsidiary of American Tower Corporation.
"We are pleased to acquire this portfolio, which will complement our existing footprint and help us serve our tenants in India as they expand 4G services in the coming years" Amit Sharma, American Tower’s Executive Vice President and President, Asia, said.
The standalone tower businesses of Vodafone India and Idea are pan-India passive telecommunication infrastructure businesses, comprising a combined portfolio of about 20,000 towers with a combined tenancy ratio of 1.65x as of 30 June 2017.
The deal with Idea, which is expected to be completed before June-end, will result in the Aditya Birla Group company getting the remaining Rs4,000 crore ($615 million).
In March 2017, Vodafone India and Idea had agreed to merge their wireless operations to create the country's largest telecom operator with worth of more than $23 billion and 35-per cent market share.
The combined entity of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, which are currently India's number 2 and 3 telecoms operators respectively, would dislodge Bharti Airtel as the leader in the world's second-largest telecom market.