Bharti Airtel subsidiary Bharti Hexacom has reportedly postponed the sale of 3,400 telecoms towers to Indus Towers pending a new valuation of the deal requested by Hexacom’s minority shareholder Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd (TCIL).
Indus Towers struck a INR33.087 billion (US$378 million) cash deal in February to buy 12,700 towers from Bharti Airtel and 3,400 towers from Bharti Hexacom, which provides consumer mobile services, fixed-line telephone and broadband services in the Rajasthan and Northeastern regions of India.
According to a report from ETTelecom on Tuesday citing unnamed sources, state-owned TCIL – which owns a 15% stake in Hexacom – halted the Hexacom deal following a dispute with Airtel over the valuation of the towers.
Professional services firm Grant Thornton valued the sale price at INR33 million per tower. TCIL is seeking a fresh valuation, and is likely to seek bids through an open and transparent process in line with Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) guidelines and Sebi rules, the report said.
An Airtel spokesperson told the newspaper it has agreed to put the Hexacom tower sale on hold until the new valuation process is completed. The report added that the sale or Airtel’s 12,700 towers to Indus is still on.
Indus has a pan-India presence with 234,643 towers and 386,819 co-locations at the end of 2024.
