American Towers Interested in Buying Indian Tower Firm

American Towers (ATC) is reported to be planning a bid to buy the 12,000 towers owned by India's Aircel, in competition with fellow bidders Tata-Quippo and private equity groups. All bidders have until this Friday (24th July) to respond to the the initial tender documents.

Two telecom executives have told the Economic Times newspaper that Aircel's 12,000 towers are valued at about $1.5 billion, although the figure may have fallen recently.

A merger earlier this year of Tata Teleservices (TTSL) tower division, Wireless Tata Telecom Infrastructure (WTTI), with Srei group's Quippo Telecom Infrastructure (QTIL) created a company with around 18,000 towers, and a valuation of US$2.4 billion.

When contacted, ATC said that the company "does not comment on speculation". ATC made its first acquisition in India earlier this year when it bought out Xcel Towers which had 1,660 towers.

Other tower operators in India include Bharti Infratel and Reliance Infratel as well as Indus Towers, the joint venture between Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular.

On the web: Economic Times

Posted to the site on 21st July 2009