Bharti Infratel, the telecoms tower unit of Indian mobile operator Bharti Airtel, is expected to file a draft IPO prospectus with the country’s stock exchange regulator this week.
This is according to the Economic Times citing two persons close to the…
Bharti Infratel, the telecoms tower unit of Indian mobile operator Bharti Airtel, is expected to file a draft IPO prospectus with the country’s stock exchange regulator this week.
This is according to the Economic Times citing two persons close to the matter.
The company is reportedly looking to raise approximately Rs50bn (US$902.8m) in the floatation of 188 million shares, which would mark the largest listing in India since 2010.
The shares would consist of 142 million newly-issued shares and 46 million shares sold by four private investors in the company.
The IPO itself may start by the end of November or early December, one of the sources was quoted as saying.
In late August, it was reported that Bharti Airtel, has shortlisted Standard Chartered, JP Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, HSBC, UBS and Kotak Mahindra for the transaction.
A few weeks before that, Bharti Airtel had confirmed, in a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange, that it was considering floating 10% of its tower unit and had appointed a committee of the board of directors to examine its options. But Bharti stressed at the time that there was no assurance the listing would eventually take place.
Over the past months, the operator has been mulling ways to address its high debt load following the acquisition of Zain’s African assets for US$10.7bn in 2010, and more specifically a US$7.5bn loan taken out to finance the deal, reports noted.
According to its website, Infratel operates more than 33,000 towers in India and has a 42% stake in Indian tower joint venture Indus Towers. The other parties in the JV, which has a portfolio of 112,000 towers, are Vodafone India (42%) and Idea Cellular (16%).
