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

Shares of Indus Towers slipped over 16 per cent today as British telecom major Vodafone was looking to sell its 2.4 per cent stake in the telecom tower firm. Additionally, Vodafone was also in talks with one of the largest shareholders of Indus Towers to sell 4.7 per cent stake in the tower firm.

Indus Towers stock opened with a loss of 8.04 per cent at Rs 231 today against the previous close of Rs 251.20 on BSE.

The large cap stock touched an intraday low of Rs 210.25, slipping 16.3 per cent on BSE. Indus Towers stock is trading lower than 5 day, 20 day, 50 day, 100 day and 200 day moving averages. Market cap of the firm fell to Rs 56,997 crore on BSE.

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Indus Towers shares have lost 23.55 per cent in one year and fallen 14.47 per cent since the beginning of this year. In a month, the stock has slipped 14.69 per cent.

"Vodafone announces that it has launched a placing of 63.6 million primary shares in Indus through an accelerated book build offering. This represents 2.4 per cent of Indus' outstanding share capital. Vodafone is also in advanced discussions with one of the largest shareholders in Indus for the purchase of up to 127.1 million Indus shares from Vodafone, or 4.7 per cent of Indus' outstanding share capital, which represents the remaining balance of primary shares," Indus Towers said in a filing to BSE.

"Vodafone is also in advanced discussions with one of the largest shareholders in Indus for the purchase of up to 127.1 million Indus shares from Vodafone, or 4.7 per cent of Indus' outstanding share capital, which represents the remaining balance of primary shares," the telecom tower firm said.

The stake sale is significant for Vodafone's India operations where Vodafone Idea has faced intense competition and lost millions of wireless subscribers to Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel.

In January, the government proposed to become the single-largest shareholder in the company with a 35.8 per cent stake in lieu of the telco's dues.

Other promoter shareholders of the company will be Vodafone Group (28.5 per cent) and Aditya Birla Group (around 17.8 per cent).

Indus Towers Limited, formerly Bharti Infratel Limited, provides passive telecom infrastructure. It deploys, owns and manages telecom towers and communication structures for various mobile operators.