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Indus Towers Limited
Company typePublic
ISININE121J01017
IndustryTelecommunications
PredecessorBharti Infratel
FoundedNovember 2007; 17 years ago (2007-11)
HeadquartersDLF Cyber City,
Gurugram, Haryana
,
India[1]
Number of locations
219,736 towers[2] (FY24)
Area served
India
Key people
  • N. Kumar (Chairman)
  • Prachur Shah (MD & CEO)[3]
RevenueIncrease ₹28,961 crore (US$3.5 billion) (2024)
Increase ₹8,122 crore (US$970 million) (2024)
Increase ₹6,036 crore (US$720 million) (2024)
Total assetsIncrease ₹55,867 crore (US$6.7 billion) (2024)
Total equityIncrease ₹27,038 crore (US$3.2 billion) (2024)
Owners
Number of employees
3,554[5] (FY24)
Websitewww.industowers.com

Indus Towers Limited is an Indian telecommunications infrastructure company offering passive infrastructure services to mobile network operators and other wireless services providers. Headquartered in Gurugram, Haryana, Indus Towers was incorporated in November 2007 by Bharti Infratel (a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel), Vodafone Essar, and Idea Cellular, to provide shared telecom infrastructure to telecom operators on a non-discriminatory basis.

Bharti Infratel merged with Indus Towers on 19 November 2020, creating one of the largest mobile tower infrastructure operators in the world.[6] Post-merger, Bharti Airtel holds a 36.73% stake in Indus Towers, with Vodafone Group Plc holding 28.12%,[7] and 3.1% shares held by Providence Equity.[4]

Indus Towers Limited has over 192,874 towers and 342,831 co-locations and a nationwide presence covering all 22 telecom circles.[8] It has the widest coverage in India and has already achieved 289,000 tenancies, a first in the telecom tower industry globally.[9][10] Some of its major customers include Airtel, Bharti Hexacom, Jio and Vi.[8]

History

[edit]

Indus Towers Limited was founded in November 2007 by Bharti Infratel, Vodafone Essar, and Idea Cellular, with the goal of merging their passive infrastructure assets across 16 telecom circles.[11] It was incorporated with an objective to provide shared telecom infrastructure to telecom operators on a non-discriminatory basis.[12] Bharti Infratel held a 42% stake in the company, with Vodafone Group Plc holding 42% and Vodafone Idea holding 11.15%.[13] The remaining 4.85% stake was held by private equity firm Providence Equity.[14]

Bharti Infratel merger

[edit]

In 2017, reports suggested that Bharti Infratel was looking to acquire the 53% stake in Indus Towers, owned by Vodacom Group and Vodafone Idea.[15] However, in July, the head of Vodafone stated that they were "actively considering" a float of their stake in Indus Towers. Vodafone went on to deliver a formal mandate to both Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley to finalize buyers.[16][17]

Bharti Airtel (Bharti Infratel's parent company), Vodafone Group, and Vodafone Idea announced on 25 April 2018 that they had signed an agreement to merge Bharti Infratel with Indus Towers.[18] Under the terms of the agreement, Bharti Infratel will transfer 1,565 of its own shares for each Indus Towers share valuing the latter at $10 billion. Other major shareholders in Indus Towers such as Idea Cellular and Providence Equity Partners would be provided an option to cash out.[19] Prior to the merger, shareholding in Indus Towers was Bharti Infratel (42%), Vodafone Group (42%), Idea Cellular (11.15%) and Providence Equity Partners (4.85%).[20]

The merger was originally planned to go through before October 2019. However, due to delays in approvals, it was postponed to December 2019 by when the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) was supposed to give its permission. Owing to further delays by the DoT and the National Company Law Tribunal the deadline was extended multiple times to 24 June 2020.[21][22]

The DoT approved the merger on 21 February 2020.[23] The merger received foreign direct investment approval and was due to be completed by 31 August.[24] The merger was approved by Bharti Infratel’s board on 1 September, and by Vodafone Group in October 2020.[25] The merger was completed on 19 November 2020. Vodafone Idea received ₹3,760.1 crore (US$450 million) as cash compensation for its 11.15% stake. Post-merger, Bharti Airtel received a 36.73% stake in the merged entity and Vodafone Group held a 28.12% stake.[7] The remaining shares are held by private equity firm Providence Equity Partners (3.1%) and public shares (35.2%).[4] The merger made Indus Towers the second largest telecom tower infrastructure operator in the world.[26]

Vodafone Group sells 18% in Indus

[edit]

On 2024 June 19 UK’s Vodafone Group Plc said that it has sold an 18% stake.Out its 21.05% holding — in Indus Towers for Rs 15,300 crore. The stake sale proceeds will be used to clear bulk of the UK company’s existing lender dues relating to $1.8 billion of borrowings secured against its Indian assets.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Contact Us". Indus Towers. 28 March 2018. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  2. ^ "Home page". Indus Towers. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  3. ^ "Board of Directors". Indus Towers. 7 May 2019. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  4. ^ a b c "Bharti Infratel, Indus Towers complete merger process". www.thehindubusinessline.com. 19 November 2020. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  5. ^ "Annual Report 2023-24" (PDF). Indus Towers. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
  6. ^ "Largest tower company in world outside China! Indus Towers, Bharti Infratel merger complete". Business Today. 20 November 2020.
  7. ^ a b "Bharti Infratel, Indus Towers merger done; VIL sells Indus stake for ₹3,760 cr". mint. 19 November 2020. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  8. ^ a b Guha, Ishita (28 January 2021). "Indus Towers Q3 net profit up 2% at ₹1,360 crore". Livemint.
  9. ^ Sengupta, Devina; Banerjee, Niharika (22 March 2017). "Merger to give Vodafone, Idea edge in divesting Indus Towers stakes". The Economic Times. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  10. ^ Aulakh, Gulveen (29 November 2016). "Indus Towers to invest Rs 100 crore to set up 500 new sites across India". The Economic Times. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  11. ^ "Indus raises Rs 10000 crore to pay off loans". The Economic Times. 20 November 2009. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  12. ^ "TERI and Indus Towers jointly ink MoU on developing innovative renewable energy solutions". The Financial Express. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  13. ^ "Bharti Infratel, Indus merger complete; VIL gets ₹3,760 cr in cash for 11.15% holding in Indus". The Hindu. 20 November 2020. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  14. ^ Kundu, Navadha Pandey,Rhik (25 April 2018). "Infratel, Indus merge to form a tower giant". mint. Retrieved 21 May 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ Alexander, George Smith (1 June 2017). "Bharti Infratel said to sound out banks to fund $8 billion Indus Towers deal". livemint.com/. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  16. ^ Parbat, Kalyan; Kalesh, Baiju (1 July 2017). "Tower sale plan of Vodafone, Idea gathers steam ahead of merger". The Economic Times. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  17. ^ "Vodafone India-Idea merger on fast track: Individual towers to be sold at the earliest". Business Insider. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  18. ^ "Merger of Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers: creating a listed pan-India tower company". Vodafone.com. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  19. ^ "India's Bharti Infratel, Indus merging to form $14.6 billion..." Reuters. 25 April 2018. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  20. ^ Sengupta, Devina (9 January 2019). "Bharti Infratel-Indus Towers merger likely to complete in the first quarter of next fiscal". The Economic Times. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  21. ^ "Bharti Infratel-Indus Towers merger may finally go through: Here's what the deal could look like". cnbctv18.com. 10 June 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  22. ^ Leo, Leroy (23 April 2020). "Lockdown delays Bharti Infratel-Indus Towers merger, deal postponed for 4th time". Livemint. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  23. ^ "DOT approves merger of Indus Towers with Bharti Infratel". Deccan Herald. 21 February 2020. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  24. ^ "Vodafone Idea to divest stake in Indus Towers after Infratel merger". Moneycontrol. July 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  25. ^ "Vodafone lenders approve merger of Indus Towers with Bharti Infratel". The Economic Times. 5 October 2020. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  26. ^ Gupta, Deepali; Barman, Arijit. "Bharti Infratel ringing in a merger with Indus to create world's largest telco". The Economic Times. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
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