Vodafone India, Idea to sell tower business to ATC

Vodafone-Idea mergerVodafone India and Idea Cellular announced they are selling the tower business to ATC Telecom Infrastructure for Rs 78.5 billion.

As announced in BSE filing on Monday, the companies will sell off the pan-Indian telecom tower business comprising 20,000 towers with a combined tenancy ratio of 1.65x as at 30 June 2017.

Idea will sell its entire stake in ICISL and Vodafone India will sell a business undertaking to ATC TIPL. .

As per the terms of the transaction, Vodafone India will receive Rs. 38.5 billion while Idea will get Rs. 40 billion.

The transaction is likely to be completed by the first half of 2018.

“The receipt of these proceeds prior to completion was anticipated and provided for in the merger agreement and hence would not affect the agreed terms of the Vodafone India and Idea merger, including the amount of debt which Vodafone will contribute to the combined company at completion,” a statement from the company said.

Both Vodafone and Idea had earlier this year announced their plans to merge into a single entity.

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