Airtel to increase stake in mobile tower installation firm Indus Towers

Bharti Airtel Limited has agreed to acquire an additional stake of 4.7% in Indus Towers Limited, an Indian mobile tower installation company, from Euro Pacific Securities, an affiliate of Vodafone Group.

According to Bharti Airtel, the stake will be acquired on its own or along with its fully-owned subsidiary Nettle Infrastructure Investments Limited. Currently, Bharti Airtel along with Nettle Infrastructure Investment holds a 41.73% stake in Indus Towers Limited.

Bharti Airtel said that the transaction is on the main condition that the amount paid will be injected by Vodafone Group as fresh equity in Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL) and remitted simultaneously to Indus Towers for clearing the outstanding dues of Vodafone Idea Limited.

Indus Towers is engaged in providing telecom tower infrastructure sharing for telecommunication services.

According to Bharti Airtel, the likely rollout of 5G in the future calls for a lot more infrastructure in which Indus Towers has a considerable role to play and partake the possible growth in the business.

Bharti Airtel stated: “We believe this transaction allows Airtel to secure continued strong provision of services from Indus Towers, protects and enhances Airtel’s value in Indus Towers, enables it to receive rich dividends and as also paves the way for subsequent financial consolidation of Indus Towers in Airtel.”

Recently, Bharti Airtel had acquired an undisclosed stake in Aqilliz, a Singaporean blockchain technology startup.