Airtel to sell 10 percent of tower arm
India's No.1 mobile services provider, Bharti Airtel Ltd, is in talks to sell around 10 percent of its mobile telecoms tower company for about $1.1 billion, the Economic Times paper said on Monday.
The New Delhi-based company has been in talks with Singapore's state-owned Temasek Holdings and Warburg Pincus to sell the stake in Bharti Infratel, the paper said, citing unnamed sources close to the development.
Bharti, which decided to transfer its mobile towers to a separate wholly owned unit earlier this year, has said it plans to double the number of towers to 80,000 by March 2008 as it expands coverage into rural areas.
"A final decision on selling an equity stake in Infratel has not been taken," the paper quoted Bharti executives as saying.
Bharti Airtel is 30.8 percent owned by Singtel, and in July said it had offered a 4.99 percent stake in the flagship mobile services firm to Temasek.
Telecoms operators in India, the world's fastest-growing mobile market, are expanding coverage in less saturated rural areas and looking to share infrastructure to keep costs down.
Reliance Communications Ltd, India's No. 2 mobile operator, recently sold 5 percent of its towers business to a clutch of institutional investors for $345 million.
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