Tatas seeks ally for tower business

The Tata group is looking at offloading around 26 to 49 per cent stake in its telecom tower infrastructure company "� Wireless-TT Infoservices (WTTIL) "� and is in talks with a clutch of global and Indian investors. WTTIL, an unlisted company, is expecting to finalise a bidder by May.

"WTTIL had received interests from around 30 companies and after preliminary negotiations 15 strategic investors "� both Indian and international "� were short-listed. Discussions are in advanced stages with these companies, while a final decision is expected by the month end," sources close to the development said.

The company is expecting a "robust valuation similar to the recent deals that took place in the industry," as the company's towers have a tenancy rate of around 1.96 operators.

The present industry average for tenancy rate per tower is around 1.10-1.20, according to an industry estimate.

When contacted, a Tata spokesperson declined to comment on the development.

The Tata group CDMA service providers "� Tata Teleservices (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (TTML) "� had spun off their entire telecom towers business into a separate company, WTTIL.

At present, the company has around 13,500 towers, of which around 10,000 belong to TTSL, the company with a pan-India presence, while the remaining is with TTML, the service provider for the Maharashtra and Mumbai circles.

The companies were also planning to add 3,000 tower per year for the next five years.

At present, there are around 1.85 lakh telecom towers in the country and to support the prolific growth of subscribers "� of around 8 million per month "� the telecom industry needs to erect at least 3 lakh towers by 2010.

Recently, the BK Modi-controlled Spice Communications has sold its entire portfolio of 875 towers to independent player Quipo Telecom Infrastructure for around Rs 600 crore.

Later, Reliance Telecom Infrastructure (RTIL) "� an Anil Ambani group company "� sold a 5 per cent stake for Rs 1,400 crore to strategic investors, while global private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co has picked up around 2.5 per cent stake in Bharti Infratel for $250 million.

The three leading GSM operators "� Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar and Idea Cellular "� have formed an independent tower company, Indus Towers, that has around 70,000 cell sites in 16 circles.