The Hindu Business Line : Tata Tele to sell 49% stake in tower biz

New Delhi , March 7 Tata Teleservices is planning to sell up to 49 per cent stake in its tower subsidiary Wireless Tata Telecom Infrastructure Ltd in the next two months. The company has short listed as many as 15 bidders which include tower companies such as GTL and Quipo.

“We will sell 26-49 per cent stake in our tower company to a strategic investor. We have already started negotiations regarding this and the deal is likely to be completed by the end of May,” the Managing Director of Tata Teleservices (TTSL), Mr Anil Sardana, said.

TTSL has over 10,000 towers, while Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) has 3,500 towers. While the company did not reveal the valuations for the tower venture, recent deals struck by other telecom players indicate it to be around $6 billion.

Bharti Infratel, which has nearly 50,000 towers, had recently divested 10 per cent stake to global investors for about $1 billion giving it an enterprise value of $10-$12.5 billion. Reliance Communications’ tower business was valued at Rs 28,000 crore for 14,000 towers in 2007.

Mr Sardana said that Tata will add 3,000 towers every year for the next 5 years.

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