Singtel associate Bharti Infratel merges with Indus Towers

This will create the largest tower company in the world after China, it said.

Bharti Infratel entered a merger with Indus Towers to create a pan-India tower company, with over 163,000 towers, operating across all 22 telecom service areas in India. According to an announcement, the combined company will be the largest tower company in the world outside China.

Singtel associate Bharti Airtel, the majority owner of Bharti Infratel, will end up with a stake of over 33.8% in the combined company, which will be called Indus Towers. 

The combined company, which will fully own the respective businesses of Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers, will change its name to Indus Towers Limited and will continue to be listed on the Indian Stock Exchanges. It will support the pan-India expansion of wireless broadband services using 4G/4G+/5G technologies for Indian consumers and businesses. 

Indus Towers was jointly owned by Bharti Infratel, Vodafone, Idea Group and Providence Equity Partners. The combined company’s equity value would be US$14.6b.

Singtel has a 39.5% share in Bharti Airtel. It previously bought 85.45 million shares in Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) for $6.3 (INR310) per share, bringing the total to $539.4m, through its subsidiary Singtel International Investments Private Limited (SIIPL). This is lower than the proposed price of $555.6m.

According to an announcement, BTL is a promoter company of Bharti Airtel Limited (BAL),