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TMCNet: American Tower said to be acquiring Essar Telecom

[December 15, 2009]

American Tower said to be acquiring Essar Telecom

Dec 15, 2009 (Datamonitor via COMTEX) -- Broadcast and wireless communications sites developer American Tower Corporation (ATC) plans to take a controlling stake in Indian tower infrastructure company Essar Telecom Infrastructure Private (ETIPL) in a $350-400m deal according to a report by the Time of India newspaper.

The report quoted an executive close to the development as saying that the companies have started the legal documentation process for the deal, which could be announced in the first week of January. ETIPL is a small player in India with over 4,000 mobile towers.

ATC is the world's second largest tower company after Indus Towers, jointly owned by Vodafone Essar, Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular. Essar has also put its 14% stake in Indus Towers for sale, which could make the company richer by up to $1.8bn. In March, ATC acquired Mumbai-based XCEL Telecom for INR 8bn.

India has more than 200,000 telecom towers owned by different players. The sector is seeing a wave of consolidation either through acquisitions or alliances. In October, telecom operators Aircel and BSNL signed a tower-sharing deal. In August, Tata Telecom Infrastructure, the joint venture of Tata Teleservices and tower company Quippo, has made an initial bid to acquire telecommunications operator Aircel's passive telecom infrastructure.

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