Breaking Airtel to acquire 4.7% stake in Indus from UK's Vodafone

[Yashvardhan Jain]

“Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”) has entered into an agreement with Vodafone to buy 4.7
% equity interest in Indus Towers on the principal condition that the amount paid shall be inducted by Vodafone as fresh equity in Vodafone Idea (Vi) and simultaneously remitted to Indus Towers to clear Vi outstanding dues,” the Suni Mittal led telco said in an official statement

Airtel to buy Vodafone’s 4.7% Indus stake in all-cash deal - ET Telecom

Airtel, which already held a 41.7% stake in the tower company, did not share financial terms in its news release, but said the purchase “would be at an attractive price, representing a significant discount, typically, available for such large block transactions”.

telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com

 

[Bapun]

Statement from Airtel on agreement with Vodafone for stake acquisition in Indus Towers

Statement from Airtel on agreement with Vodafone for stake acquisition in Indus Towers

www.airtel.in

 

[Esmail]

Good move by Airtel, increasing its stake and getting paid back by Vi for it's tower dues, hitting 2 targets with a single shot.
Vodafone seems to be gradually wrapping up its presence in the Indian telecom market.

 

[saketk11]

Good move by Airtel, increasing its stake and getting paid back by Vi for it's tower dues, hitting 2 targets with a single shot.
Vodafone seems to be gradually wrapping up its presence in the Indian telecom market.

voda uk also given statement to fdilute remain stake of 21% in indus
as telenor also loosing hope in Asian/Indian Telco market
Vodafone is also following same path'
fortunately both from Europe, where all other including these two face profitable market share existence

so vi investor majorly coming from usa, as European investor already having lot of opportunity to invest during consolidation wave.

and chinese investors and telco virtually barred to enter india.

 

[TheAndroidFreak]

voda uk also given statement to fdilute remain stake of 21% in indus
as telenor also loosing hope in Asian/Indian Telco market
Vodafone is also following same path'
fortunately both from Europe, where all other including these two face profitable market share existence

so vi investor majorly coming from usa, as European investor already having lot of opportunity to invest during consolidation wave.

and chinese investors and telco virtually barred to enter india.

Telenor?

 

[TheAndroidFreak]

Good move by Airtel, increasing its stake and getting paid back by Vi for it's tower dues, hitting 2 targets with a single shot.
Vodafone seems to be gradually wrapping up its presence in the Indian telecom market.

If Vi dilutes the whole share, it will be good for Vi as money will be invested in networks and KMBirla might invest as he promised too along with foreign fund raising might come into picture. Vi will be good third operator which is its not currently. Adani wanted to buy Vi+BSNL at 50000 Crore but government denied giving BSNL and Ambani warned Adani from entering into this field. In any way, even Airtel or Indus Towers is not sufficient to build world class Infra like Jio. So Both these operators have to rely on GTL Infra and Jio Infra for further expansion of 4G/5G. If tariff hike comes this year(which most probably will come) Airtel will loose lot of subscribers and Airtel will gain revenue+ARPU through postpaid consumers only. They have huge customer base through Airtel Black.

 

[Esmail]

so vi investor majorly coming from usa, as European investor already having lot of opportunity to invest during consolidation wave.

Yes, ideally Verizon would have been the perfect fit, even the brand name Verizon Vi would be suitable. If only they could buy out Vodafone's stake in a distress sale if that can bail out the operator from the debt trap. But in the current scenario it's doubtful that any foreign investor would want to put its hand in the hyper competitive Indian Telecom market.

 

[TheAndroidFreak]

Yes, ideally Verizon would have been the perfect fit, even the brand name Verizon Vi would be suitable. If only they could buy out Vodafone's stake in a distress sale if that can bail out the operator from the debt trap. But in the current scenario it's doubtful that any foreign investor would want to put its hand in the hyper competitive Indian Telecom market.

It's not at all hyper compeititive. There is huge scope going forward. Verizon has competed well in US with TMobile and AT&T with AT&T being a very small operator. It can easily fit into this combination and we will have good competitive environment after its entry.

 

[Esmail]

It's not at all hyper compeititive. There is huge scope going forward. Verizon has competed well in US with TMobile and AT&T with AT&T being a very small operator. It can easily fit into this combination and we will have good competitive environment after its entry.

In the Indian context Airtel is equivalent to Verizon in US and Vi is equivalent to AT&T, Jio is doing what T-Mobile did in US taking on the incumbents with its new age approach and BSNL is like Sprint mostly irrelevant apart from the deep rural pockets.

 

[saketk11]

Yes, ideally Verizon would have been the perfect fit, even the brand name Verizon Vi would be suitable. If only they could buy out Vodafone's stake in a distress sale if that can bail out the operator from the debt trap. But in the current scenario it's doubtful that any foreign investor would want to put its hand in the hyper competitive Indian Telecom market.

very much agree verizon fits to be presence with two brands.

voda uk exit means entering new player.

verizon along with birla sloud revive idea brand.

verizon alone cant make vi's distress sale to come out of debt trap. other PE VC or tech giants like manevir, intel nokia, and non tech giant like walmart, all these will make this happen.

also i believes AT&T want expand india operation from just NLD [player to mobil broadband but cant put money into highly leverage vi telco.

Esmail bhai
hyper competitive means 12 player with 2g
6 player with 3g
4 player with 4g
3 player with 5g??