Reports in India suggest that Saudi Telecom is looking to acquire a stake in the newly merged towers business of Reliance Communications and GTL Infrastructure.
However, according to Reuters, STC’s chief executive for international operations Ghassan…
Reports in India suggest that Saudi Telecom is looking to acquire a stake in the newly merged towers business of Reliance Communications and GTL Infrastructure.
However, according to Reuters, STC’s chief executive for international operations Ghassan Hasbani said, “There are no discussions to buy a stake in this firm.”
This followed reports in India’s Business Standard newspaper that STC was after a 10-15% stake in the company.
Earlier this week, Reliance agreed to merge its towers subsidiary Reliance Infratel with GTL Infrastructure in a deal worth US$11bn.
The deal will see Reliance Infratel’s towers assets demerged into GTL Infra but Reliance Communications will retain ownership of its 200,000 km fibre optic network and related assets.
According to the Business Standard, private equity firms Carlyle, Blackstone and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority are also interested in taking a stake in the newly created business, which hopes to lease infrastructure to other Indian operators.
Last year STC was attempting to sell off its own domestic towers portfolio.
