VODAFONE, IDEA’S STANDALONE TOWER ASSETS sold for about $1.2bn

On November 13, Vodafone India Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd said that they have separately agreed to sell their standalone tower businesses to ATC Telecom Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd for about $1.2 billion.

The companies said in a joint statement said that standalone tower businesses of Vodafone India and Idea are pan-Indian passive telecommunication infrastructure businesses, comprising a combined portfolio of approximately 20,000 towers with a combined tenancy ratio of 1.65x as of 30 June 2017.

S&R Associates acted for Vodafone India with the team being led by Partners Rajat Sethi and Radhika Iyer along with Jagriti Mohata, Dhruv Nath, Raya Hazarika, Meher Mehta and Sushmita Sur.

Slaughter and May served as international counsel for Vodafone.

Bharucha & Partners advised Idea Cellular and Senior Partner Alka Bharucha along with Senior Associate Ayesha Bharucha and Swathi Girimaji and Associates Amrita Vyas and Aishwarya Gupta led the team.

AZB & Partners acted for ATC Telecom and the team was led by Delhi Partners Gautam Saha, Amrita Patnaik and Heena Singh along with Swati Chauhan, Roy George, Namita Das, Vinit Nalavadi, Harshit Chandra, Aditi Agarwal, Punita Gupta, Karthika Annamalai and Aman Jain. Ravi Prakash advised on tax issues.

With the expectation of being completed in the first half of 2018, the deal will consolidate ATC’s position as the second-largest telecom tower company with about 80,000 towers.