Idea Cellular gains on talks of stake sale in tower arm

The stock was up 5% to Rs 79.70 on the NSE in intra-day trade on back of heavy volumes.

Idea Cellular was up 5% to Rs 79.70 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in intra-day trade on reports that the Aditya Birla Group's telecom major has put on block 100% stake in its tower arm.

The Exchange has sought clarification from Idea Cellular with respect to news article appearing on Moneycontrol.com on November 29, 2016 titled "Idea Cellular plans to sell 100% in tower arm for $1 billion,” the NSE said in a statement.

The reply is awaited.

Idea Cellular Infrastructure Services Limited, a subsidiary of Idea Cellular, is a Tower Company owning towers in Bihar and Odisha service areas and provides passive infrastructure services in these service areas. Post transfer of towers from Idea Cellular in August 2016, it now owns all Idea towers across the country.

Besides these towers, Idea Cellular through its wholly owned subsidiary Aditya Birla Telecom Limited (ABTL) holds 16% equity stake in Indus Towers Limited (Indus).

Indus, a joint venture between Bharti Infratel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular (thru ABTL), is one of the world’s leading tower company with 119,881 towers and tenancy ratio of 2.25 as of March 31, 2016.

At 03:18 pm; the stock was up 4.5% to Rs 79.20 on the NSE, as compared to 0.20% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. A combined 18.3 million shares changed hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE so far.