Indus Towers

Vodafone Group reportedly made progress with plans to sell its entire stake in Indian infrastructure company Indus Towers, as part of efforts to help shore up its troubled mobile business in the country.

Vodafone Idea cashed out of Indus Towers as the infrastructure unit completed a long-awaited merger with Bharti Infratel, though Bloomberg reported the move did less to ease the cash-strapped operator’s burden than headline figures suggest.

A Vodafone Idea plan to raise funds from the sale of its stake in a combined Indus Towers-Bharti Infratel entity to pay government dues ran into new obstacles, as outstanding approvals for the merger may not come fast enough.

India’s National Company Law Tribunal approved a proposed merger of Indus Towers with Bharti Infratel, a move which will create one of the largest tower companies outside of China.

Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers, the largest tower company in India, claim Vodafone Idea owes them a total of INR45 billion ($632 million) for reducing the number of tenancies per site since its merger, The Economic Times (ET) reported.

Consolidation in India’s telecoms sector is taking a heavy toll on tower companies in the country, which have seen co-locations drop sharply and revenue plummet, even as new towers are added, results from three tower companies showed.

A consortium led by US private equity company KKR is looking at several big deals which would change the shape of India’s telecoms infrastructure market, The Economic Times (ET) reported.