Bharti Airtel to buy 4.7% stake in Indus Towers from Vodafone

Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Friday stated that it has entered into an agreement with Vodafone to buy 4.7% stake in Indus Towers. The deal is conditional upon Vodafone infusing fresh equity in Vodafone Idea and simultaneously remitted to Indus Towers to clear VIL’s outstanding dues, Airtel said in a statement. 

In addition, Airtel is also protected with a capped price which is lower than the price for the block of Indus shares sold by Vodafone on February 24, 2022, it further added. This shall be value accretive to Airtel and protect its existing significant shareholding in Indus Towers.  

"We support the government’s desire to have three private operators to serve the Indian Telecom market which is also in the best interest of Indus Towers. With the likely introduction of 5G in the future, we believe a lot more infrastructure would be required in which Indus Towers, an undisputed leader, has a significant role to play and partake the potential growth in the business," Airtel added. 

ALSO READ: Indus Towers stock slips 16% on Vodafone's plan to sell 2.4% stake

Currently, Vodafone holds about 28 per cent in Indus Towers while that of Bharti Airtel is close to 42 per cent.

Indus Towers, formerly Bharti Infratel Ltd, is a leading provider of passive telecom infrastructure. It deploys, owns and manages telecom towers and communication structures for various mobile operators.

The company's portfolio of over 1,84,748 telecom towers, makes it one of the largest tower infrastructure providers in the country with presence in all 22 telecom circles. Indus Towers caters to all wireless telecommunication service providers in India.

Indus Towers posted about 16 per cent rise in consolidated profit at Rs 1,570.8 crore in the three months ended December 2021 while revenues stood at Rs 6,927 crore during the same period.

Shares of Bharti Airtel closed 2.64 per cent higher at Rs 688.45 apiece on BSE today.