Indus Towers has added more than 16,000 towers to its portfolio after its board announced the finalisation of deals with Bharti Airtel and Bharti Hexacom. The Bharti Airtel Board of Directors authorised the sale of approximately 12,700 telecom towers, which include macro sites, ultra lean sites (ULS), and cell on wheels (COW), to Indus Towers. An additional 3,400 towers from Bharti Hexacom, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel are also to be transferred.
The total value of the transaction is Rs3,308.7 crore ($379mn) or $23,540 per tower. This is comparable to the $32,170 per tower achieved by American Tower in its exit to Brookfield last year.
"The Board of Directors...have today, approved the acquisition of passive infrastructure assets/ telecom towers from Bharti Airtel Limited and Bharti Hexacom Limited, by way of slump sale," Indus Towers said in a regulatory filing. Reporting indicates that no locations set up through USOF initiatives are included.
Indus Towers Limited was formed by the merger of Bharti Infratel Limited and Indus Towers in 2020. Today it forms the world's third largest towerco with 234,643 sites. The addition of 16,000 would take it within narrow reach of the number two spot - behind only China Tower.
The last major deal in India saw American Tower exit through a sale to Brookfield, enabling the investor to add to its platform in India creating Altius out of its prior stake in Summit Digitel. However, investors have been repositioning their stakes in India.
In January, Vodafone sold its remaining stake in Indus. Earlier in 2024, Vodafone sold an 18 percent stake in Indus Towers, worth US$1.78bn. Airtel's stake in the company is worth 49 percent following KKR and Canadian fund CPPIB selling down their stakes in Indus in February.
As of the end of 2024, Indus Towers sites house 386,819 co-locations for a tenancy ratio of 1.65x and a nationwide presence covering all 22 telecom circles. Indus’ leading customers are Bharti Airtel (together with Bharti Hexacom), Vodafone Idea Limited and Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited.
