American Tower launched its operations in India in 2007 and has more than 14,000 towers nationwide.
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“Tata Teleservices stake will come down to about 34 percent from current 54 percent now and further it would get reduced to 26 percent after ATC merges its Indian business with Viom”, said Sunil Kanoria Vice-Chairman of Srei Infrastructure Finance.
Reliance Jio, the telecoms venture of India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, that is building India’s biggest 4G network has signed pacts with Viom and American Tower among others to lease mobile masts.
American Tower may buy or may be required to buy all or part of the outstanding 49 percent in Viom, it said.
It added that SREI Group together will sell its entire holding for Rs 2,952 crore ($452 million). The remaining stake is held by private equity firms SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Fund, GIC Investments Pte Ltd (Singapore), IDFC Private Equity and Funderburk Mauritius Ltd (Oman Investment Fund).
“With a population of almost 1.3 billion people, rapidly growing smartphone penetration and limited fixed-line infrastructure, India’s vibrant wireless industry is poised for a sustained period of network investment”, American Tower’s Chief Executive Officer Jim Taiclet said in the statement.
Globally, American Tower is one of the largest global REITs, is a leading independent owner, operator and developer of multi-tenant communications real estate with a portfolio of approximately 97,000 communications sites.
In a statement to the stock exchanges on Tuesday, Srei Infrastructure Finance said the company, along with other investors in Viom, are looking at either diluting or divesting their stake in Viom. Indus was created by merger of certain tower assets of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular.
Morgan Stanley says the spectrum sharing guidelines approved by the India government will not impact telecom tower companies in India.
During the quarter ended June 30, 2015, Viom generated annualised revenue of approximately Rs 5,000 crore in rental and management revenue, around Rs 2,100 crore in gross profit and Rs 1,854 crore in annualised EBITDA. Viom had INR 58 billion of debt at the end of September.
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Credit Suisse, Kotak Investment Bank-Evercore and Citi are the financial advisors in the transaction while Luthra & Luthra were the legal advisors on the deal.
