Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) has offered to sell 50 per cent of its total stake and IDFC its entire stake in American Tower Corporation’s (ATC) tower unit for ₹ 2,940 crore. The companies, redeeming their put options, will offload the stakes to ATC.
Separately, TTSL, which merged its consumer mobile businesses with Bharti Airtel in a cashless deal last year, will pay ATC $320 million (₹2,368 crore) as one-time settlement for closing down nearly 30,000 telecom towers. ATC expects this money to come into its coffers by the fourth quarter of 2018.
After the stake sale by TTSL and IDFC, ATC will own 79 per cent in its India operations.
In October 2015, ATC bought a 51 per cent stake in Viom Networks from TTSL and SREI Infrastructure Finance for ₹7,635 crore and later renamed the company ATC TIPL. Now, ATC TIPL is India’s second-largest independent tower firm with a portfolio of about 78,000 towers.
ATC holds 63 per cent in ATC TIPL, while the rest is held by Tata Sons, Tata Teleservices, IDFC, Macquarie SBI Infrastructure Investments and SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Trust.
Commenting on the $320-million settlement, ATC said: “Subsequent to the end of the quarter, we reached a comprehensive agreement with the Tata Group that we believe preserves our ability to achieve our long-term return on investment objectives in India. We expect that this agreement, along with the acquisition of about 20,000 Vodafone and Idea towers earlier this year, will position American Tower to benefit from the anticipated recovery in the Indian mobile market.”
“About 80 per cent of TTSL’s tenant revenue will be churned out of the company’s tenant billings run rate, effective November 1,” it added.
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