UPDATE: Reliance Infratel mulling IPO, to file DRHP soon

Reliance Communications' telecom tower subsidiary Reliance Infratel is planning an initial public offer(IPO) and the company will shortly file the draft prospectus with market regulator Sebi, a top company official said.     

"We are mulling a 10 per cent stake sale of equity of Reliance Infratel through an IPO. 85 per cent of the stake of the company will remain with Reliance Communications," Reliance Communications Chairperson Anil Ambani told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting held here today.     

Reliance Infratel has expanded its portfolio of multi-tenancy towers to 48,000.     

"We have added 35,000 towers over the last two years creating the largest supply base of plug and play telecom infrastructure, both for our internal network expansion and for the use of operators," he added.     

The company has recently transferred its optical fibre division to Reliance Infratel to bring the larger market supposition under the same legal entity and create greater cost synergies, Ambani said.     

"In July, we signed a long-term infrastructure sharing agreement with Etisalat DB valued at over Rs 10,000 crore for a minimum period of ten years," he said.     

Reliance Communications, whose board today approved the proposal for Reliance Infratel IPO, would also consider fund raising through qualified institutional placement basis at an appropriate time.