TTML to repay debt, fuel GSM ops from tower biz sale proceeds

Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (TTML) plans to use the proceeds of the sale of its tower business to pay off some debt, invest a portion for GSM expansion and keep the rest for bidding during the 3G auction, a top company official said.

"We have a debt of Rs 3,400 crore. We are looking at repaying some short-term debt and using the surplus for the remaining part of our GSM roll-out and 3G auction," Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Managing Director, Mukund Rajan, said here today.

The Tata group company has sold its tower business to Quippo-WTTIL for Rs 1,318 crore and expects to close the transaction by getting all approvals in the next few days, Rajan said.

"We had decided to divest our tower business more than a year back since it was not core to our business. We were waiting for the right valuation and we believe we have got it through this sale," he said.

While Rajan would not reveal how much would be used for debt repayment, saying "we are working this out... It should be clear in the next few weeks, a certain proportion of the funds will be used to fuel its GSM roll-out."