Tata Teleservices in talks with ATC to sell tower business for Rs 2,500 cr

Tata Teleservices is in talks with American Tower Corporation to sell its entire stake in the mobile tower business for about Rs 2,500 crore at a price of Rs 212 per share.

"Tata Teleservices sold half of its stake to American Tower Corporation (ATC) in October 2018. It is option to sell the rest of the stake it holds along with Tata Sons in this fiscal. The process for sale has started for valuation of around Rs 2,500 crore at Rs 212 per share," a source, who did not wish to be identified, told PTI.

No immediate reply was received from ATC and Tata Teleservices on an e-mail query sent to them in this regard.

Tata Teleservices sold half of its 26 per cent stake and IDFC its entire stake in mobile tower company ATC TIPL to majority shareholder American Tower Corporation (ATC) for Rs 2,940 crore.

In October 2015, ATC bought a 51 per cent stake in Viom from Tata Teleservices Ltd and SREI Infrastructure Finance for Rs 7,635 crore. After acquiring majority stake, ATC named the firm as ATC Telecom Infrastructure Pvt Ltd.

ATC TIPL is the second-largest private telecom tower firm in India with a portfolio of around 78,000 mobile towers.

Tata Teleservices' stake in Viom Networks came down to 26 per cent after ATC acquired a majority stake in the company and merged its existing India business and further reduced to 13 per cent after stake sale in October 2018.

ATC's stake in ATC TIPL is likely to reach around 90 per cent if the Tata Teleservices exits the business after selling entire stake.