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Bharti Infratel, Indus Tower to merge
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SME Times News Bureau | 25 Apr, 2018
Bharti Airtel has approved to merge Indus Towers into Bharti Infratel to
create the largest mobile tower entities worldwide with 1.63 lakh
towers across 22 circles in India, a company statement said here on
Wednesday.
The combined company will own 100 per cent of Indus Towers, it said.
Indus
Towers was currently jointly owned by Bharti Infratel (42 per cent),
Vodafone (42 per cent), Idea Group (11.15 per cent) and Providence (4.85
per cent).
The combined company, which will fully own the
respective businesses of Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers, will change
its name to Indus Towers Limited and will continue to be listed on the
Indian Stock Exchanges.
"Taken together, Bharti Infratel and
Indus Towers had over 163,000 towers and 367,000 tenancies as on March
31, 2018. With over Rs 253 billion ($3.8 billion) in revenues (for the
financial year ended March 31, 2018).
"The combined company will
be well placed to invest on a national basis to satisfy the future
demand from all telecoms operators in India as they continue to densify
their networks to support sustained data traffic growth and roll out new
network technologies," the company statement said.
"Indus Towers
currently operates in 15 telecom service areas (Circles) and Bharti
Infratel's operations are focused on the remaining seven Circles.
"The
combination of Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers, with their highly
complementary footprints, will create a pan-India tower company with the
ability to offer high quality passive infrastructure services to all
operators on a non-discriminatory basis, needed to support the pan-India
expansion of wireless broadband services using 4G/4G+/5G technologies,"
it added.
Bharti Airtel and Vodafone will have equal rights in
the combined company. They have entered into a shareholders' agreement
and it is expected that the combined company's articles of association
will be amended at completion to reflect some of these rights.
"Following
completion, the Board of the combined company will comprise of 11
directors, of whom three will be appointed by each of Bharti Airtel and
Vodafone, one will be appointed by KKR/Canada Pension Plan Investment
Board and four (including the Chairman) will be independent.
"The management team will be confirmed prior to closing," the statement clarified.
The
transaction is subject to approvals from the relevant regulatory
authorities, including from Competition Commission of India, Securities
and Exchange Board of India, National Company Law Tribunal, Department
of Telecommunications (FDI approval), approval from Bharti Infratel's
shareholders, necessary corporate approvals from the companies involved,
as well as closing conditions.
The transaction is expected to complete before the end of the financial year ending March 31, 2019, the statement added.
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