Sunday, August 9, 2009

www.bsnlnewsbyashokhindocha.blogspot.com M-9426201999 ashok Hindocha


Aircel shortlists four cos to sell its $2 bn tower biz
www.bsnlnewsbyashokhindocha.blogspot.com


NEW DELHI: Aircel Cellular has shortlisted four players — US-based American Tower Corporation (ATC), Crown Castle International, Bharti Infratel and
the Tata-Quippo combine — for buying out its tower business in a deal worth $1.5-2 billion, according to an executive familiar with the development. These four companies will have access to Aircel’s books, starting next week to begin due diligence.

This implies that Reliance Telecom Infrastructure (RTIL), the tower arm of Reliance Communications, and GTL, the country’s largest standalone tower company have failed to make the cut. But an executive with GTL said the company had not heard from Aircel and was, therefore, unaware of the firm missing the shortlist.

Malaysian telco Maxis Communications, which has a majority stake in Aircel, had appointed Standard Chartered, Nomura and Rothschild as investment bankers to sell a majority stake in its business unit with 12,000-plus towers.

A top executive with a tower company that has put in a bid had earlier told ET that he would expect Aircel’s towers to be valued at about Rs 46-48 lakh per unit. This is far lesser than Tata Teleservices tower arm Wirless Tata Telecom Infrastructure’s (WTTI) merger with Srei group company Quippo Telecom Infrastructure (QTIL) in December 2008 where the deal valued each tower at over Rs 70 lakh.

But this is in line with the recent deal where ATC had bought Xcel Towers which had 1,660 towers and the deal valued each tower at just over Rs 46 lakh.

Another executive aware of the developments said that due diligence would take about 4-6 weeks, following which, all the four shortlisted bidders would have to submit binding bids. This will be followed by the short-listing process, the executive added.

Aircel is the only telco among major operators that has not hived off its towers into a separate entity. Towers are a crucial physical infrastructure that transmit voice and data signals to mobile users.

All large telecom operators, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, RCOM and Idea Cellular, have demerged their towers and physical infrastructure into separate entities.

Industry executives said Aircel, which has a little over 21 million customers, plans to sell its towers, as it requires funds for its $5-billion expansion plan to become a pan-India operator by the end of 2010.

Aircel will also require additional resources if it were to bid for the upcoming 3G spectrum auctions, vital for high-end offerings on the mobile, such as video-conferencing and high-speed internet.

This also marks the first instance of ATC and Crown Castle International, which are locked in a neck-to-neck battle for the US market leadership, playing out their rivalry in the Indian market.

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