ATC not eyeing Reliance Communication's tower asset

Reliance Communications' plans to sell its 50,000 towers asset seem to have reached another roadblock. American Tower Corporation is not eyeing these towers, sources tell ET NOW. There was increased speculation that Reliance Communications was being wooed by players to pick up this asset, but as ET NOW learns US-headquartered ATC is not among them. However, the official spokesperson of ATC India said that, “as a company policy we do not comment on market speculations.”

“Going ahead the focus for ATC is to consolidate the towers that it bought from Essar Telecom Infrastructure Limited. And at this moment they aren’t eyeing any other asset in the country,” said an industry source. Independent tower firm American Tower Company had bought 4450 towers of Essar Telecom Infrastructure Limited early last year. And the company is now focusing on consolidating its India business.

Analysts say that this could be a significant setback to the company as its earlier tower deal with GTL also did not take off. The two companies had signed an in-principle approval to create a tower company through a merger of Reliance Infratel’s tower assets into GTL Infra. The deal however fell through because of various issues.