Vodafone Idea gains on completion of Indus Tower-Bharti lnfratel merger

Vodafone Idea rose 3.13% to Rs 9.56 after the company received Rs 3,760.10 crore cash for its 11.15% stake sale in Indus Towers, whose merger with Bharti Infratel has been completed.

Vodafone Idea has made a prepayment of Rs 2400 crore to the merged tower entity from the cash consideration received from Infratel.

The deal was first announced in April 2018 to create the world's largest mobile tower operator outside China. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had cleared Bharti Infratel's merger deal with Indus in February this year. The new merged entity would become the world's largest telecom tower company with more than 1.63 lakh towers.

Separately, Bharti Airtel announced that the merger of Indus Towers and Bharti lnfratel (together the combined entity) has been completed. "The combined entity, to be renamed as Indus Towers, is listed on the National Stock Exchange of India and BSE, it said in a regulatory filing.

The telecom major further said that upon implementation of the scheme, the aggregate shareholding of Bharti Airtel in the combined entity shall reduce from 53.51% to 36.73%.

In a regulatory filing made after closing hours on Thursday, Bharti Infratel said that its board had allotted 757,821,804 equity shares to the Vodafone group and 87,506,900 equity shares to PS Asia Holding Investments (Mauritius) (Providence) (together 'eligible shareholders' of Indus as on the record date) aggregating to 28.12% and 3.25%, respectively, in the post-issue share capital of the company.

Consequently, the Vodafone group will hold 28.12% stake while the Airtel Group will hold 36.73% stake in the combined entity.

Shares of Bharti Infratel jumped 9.70% to Rs 203.60 while Bharti Airtel gained 0.20% to Rs 469.55 on the BSE.

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