Bharti Infratel, Indus merge, create world's largest non-Chinese tower firm

Vodafone, Idea and Providence Equity Partners' holding in Indus Towers to be merged into Bharti Infratel's; combined entity to together control over 163,000 towers across India's 22 telecom circles

Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone group today announced that they have agreed to merge Vodafone, Idea Group and Providence Equity Partners’  respective shareholdings in Indus Towers Limited into Bharti Infratel Limited, creating a combined company that will own 100 per cent of Indus Towers. This will be the largest tower company in the world outside China.

Indus Towers is jointly owned by Bharti Infratel (42 per cent), Vodafone (42 per cent), Idea Group (11.15 per cent) and Providence (4.85 per cent).

The merger ratio involves 1,565 shares of Bharti Infratel for every 1 share of Indus Towers share, the