Vodafone denies reports of tower sale

Leading international telecommunications firm Vodafone has denied media reports that it was planning to sell 7,000 mobile towers of its India operations.

According to the company, it reviews its options for assets from time to time in the course of normal business. Media reports today claimed that the company hoped to raise about $450 million by selling its mobile towers across six telecom circles in India.

Telecom infrastructure firms including GTL Infrastructure, Tata Quippo and Reliance Infratel were to submit bids for the towers. However, none of the three firms have confirmed the news.

The telecom towers business in India is undergoing a restructuring, with many telecom service providers planning to hive off their infrastructure. About three years ago, three leading operators – Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone Essar – set up an independent firm, Indus Towers, to manage some of their towers.

Earlier this year, GTL Infrastructure acquired nearly 18,000 towers from telecom operator Aircel Ltd for about $1.8 billion. But a bid to merge GTL's tower business with that of Reliance failed recently.

GTL's board, however, has just approved a resolution to raise Rs.1,500 crore to Rs.2,000 crore by way of equity. Analysts believe this could be utilised to fund its further acquisition of towers.