Bharti Infratel gains on talk of acquiring telecom towers

The company plans to acquire telecom towers of Idea Cellular and Vodafone

Shares of Bharti Infratel were up over 3% at Rs 469 on reports that the company is in talks with major mobile service providers to acquire their telecom towers.

Cash-rich Bharti Infratel is in advanced talks with British telecom major Vodafone and the Aditya Birla Group's Idea Cellular to buy out their telecom towers at a valuation of up to $1.6 billion (Rs 10,080 crore), according to a Business Standard report citing sources.

The acquisition is attractive as Vodafone's tenancy ratio is around 1.5 in towers in Madhya Pradesh, Assam, the northeast, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Bihar. Idea's tenancy ratio is 1.6, the report added.CLICK HERE TO READ FULL REPORT
 

The stock opened at Rs 455 and touched a high of Rs 476. At 2:30PM, over 1.2 million shares were traded on both the stock exchanges.