Vodafone may sell extra towers to Bharti, Indus

MUMBAI: Vodafone Essar may sell the telecom towers in the seven service areas outside the Indus Towers agreement to Bharti Airtel or Indus Towers, said two people familiar with the company's plans. Vodafone has taken the bids from Viom and GTL Infrastructure as benchmarks to Bharti and Indus, one of them said.

If either of the companies matches or value the assets in a similar range, Vodafone could get more stake in Indus Towers or cash, he added. Vodafone had earlier sought bids from telecom tower companies and Tata group-owned Viom Networks and independent tower operator GTL Infrastructure emerged as bidders.

The second person said the bids from the two had come in the range of Rs 3,200 to Rs 3,500 crore for around 7,000 towers with at least one tenant on each tower.

ET had reported in November last year that GTL Infrastructure and Tata Quippo (rechristened Viom) were in the race to buy Vodafone Essar's towers in seven circles, adding the deal could be valued at Rs 3,500-4 ,000 crore. Both GTL and Viom had put in initial bids.

Indus Towers is a joint venture between Bharti and Vodafone that hold 42% each and Idea Cellular has the remaining 16%. The company operates in 16 circles leasing tower space to telecom operators for monthly rentals. Tower companies have become big in the country over the last two year as call rates plummeted and operators need to reduce capital costs to maintain margins and cash flow.