With this buyout Brookfield would get approx. 76,000 towers from ATC India and its tower portfolio goes to 2,57,000 – making it largest tower company of India (also globally, outside China). Just positioned from 1st to 2nd, Bharti Airtel backed Indus Towers have 2,25,910 towers as of June 2024.
Before acquisition, Brookfield-backed DIT houses Summit Digitel and Crest Digitel and is managed by its Investment Manager, Data Link, an affiliate of Brookfield. After this acquisition, Summit Digitel, Crest Digitel, and ATC India will be combined under the new brand name, Altius.
Website: https://www.datainfratrust.com/
ATC assets have been put under 'Elevar Digitel'.
In November 2024 American Tower Corp (ATC) has informed the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it suffered a $1.2 billion loss (about Rs 10,125 crore) on the recent sale of its India unit, ATC Telecom Infrastructure Pvt Ltd (ATC-TIPL), to Canadian asset manager Brookfield.
Timeline of Tower Companies of India:
2000-2007:
- Reliance
India Mobile was the first operator in the country who understood the
importance of creating a separate infrastructure company – in 2001
Reliance Telecom Infrastructure Limited was founded to take care the towers,
OFC and related assets of the company.
- Aster
Infrastructure was founded in 2002.
- Global
Group entered into tower biz with GTL Infra in 2004.
- In
2005 Independent Mobile Infrastructure (IMIL) was founded. (later shut
down in 2009-10)
- In
2005 Kolkata based Kanoria Group backed SREI Infra ventured into tower biz
via Quippo Telecom Infrastructure.
- In
2006 Tower Vision (HQ at Gurugram) and Xcel Telecom entered into tower
business.
- Delhi
headquartered American Tower Corporation India started operations in India
in 2007 starting from Bihar and Orissa.
- In
2007 Transcend Infrastructure was founded in Kolkata.
- In
July 2007 Bharti Airtel demerge their tower business as Bharti Infratel.
- In
November 2007 Bharti Infratel (42%), Vodafone India (42%) and Idea
Cellular (16%) founded Indus Towers – the largest tower company
in the world with more than 1.2 lakh towers.
- In
2008 Quippo bought of Spice Telecom’s towers.
- Reliance
Telecom Infrastructure Limited was rebranded as Reliance Infratel in 2008.
(in 2005 Reliance empire was divided between two brothers and since then
Reliance’s telecom business was headed by Anil Ambani and rebranded as
Reliance Communication or RCOM).
2009-2014:
- In
2009 Vodafone created a new company Ortus Infratel Holdings to invest in
Indus Towers.
- In
May 2009 ATC India acquired Xcel Telecom.
- In
November 2009 ATC India acquired Transcend Infrastructure.
- In
2009 Tata Tele’s tower arm Wireless Tata Telecom Infrastructure Ltd
(WTTIL) merged with Quippo.
- In
February 2010 ATC India bought Essar Telecom Infrastructure Ltd (ETIL).
- In
March 2010 Quippo-WTTIL bought of Tata Tele (Maharastra)’s tower company
21st Century Infra Tele (TFCITL).
- In
2010 Quippo-WTTIL was rebranded as Viom Networks (Tata had 54% and SREI
had 18%)
- GTL
Infra bought towers of Aircel in 2010.
- In
2010 Aster Infra rebranded as Ascend Infrastructure. In 2011 Ascend Infra
acquired India Telecom Infra Limited (ITIL) with 3000 sites over 17
circles.
- In
2011 TAIPA (Tower And Infrastructure Providers Association) was formed.
2015-2018:
- In
December 2015 debt-ridden RCom initiated talk with Tillman Global and TPG
Asia for selling of Reliance Infratel, but failed.
- In
April 2016 ATC India bought 51% share in Viom Networks. SREI group exited
from tower biz. ATC-Viom merged entity was rebranded as ATC TIPL.
- In
December 2016 RCom went into a deal with Canada based Brookfield Asset
Management to sell of 51% stake of Reliance Infratel. The new entity would
be branded as Towercom Infrastructure
- In
March 2017 Idea and Vodafone announced the merger and therefore they
planned to sell out the standalone towers to third party. Airtel has sold
10.3% stakes of its tower arm Bharti Infratel to a consortium led by KKR
and CPPIB for Rs 6193 crore. Bharti now owns 61.7% of Bharti Infratel.
- In
September 2017 government of India made a plan to hive off BSNL's towers
into a separate entity to be owned by public sector enterprise.
- In
the last week of October 2017 Brookfield stepped aside from the deal to
buy off majority stake in R-Infra (owned by Anil Ambani).
- In
November 2017 ATC Telecom Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd announced acquisition of
a total of 20,000 towers from Vodafone Tower Holdings and Idea Cellular
Infrastructure Services Ltd (ICISL) separately. (These towers are not from
Indus Towers)
- November
2017: parent firm Bharti Airtel via its wholly owned subsidiary Nettle
Infrastructure Investments sold 83 million equity shares aggregating to
4.49% stake in Bharti Infratel through a secondary share sale in the stock
market. Consequent to the stake sale Bharti Airtel and Nettle together
hold a combined 53.51% stake in Bharti Infratel.
- Jio
agreed to buy towers from Reliance Infratel along with some spectrum and
other wireless assets (December 2017).
- In
January 2018 ATC applied to DoT to merge its Indian subsidiaries and
invest another $ 1.2 billion.
- In
March 2018 ATC completed merger of its 5 Indian subsidiaries (ATC India
Tower Corp Pvt Ltd, ATC Tower Co. of India Pvt Ltd, McCoy Developers Pvt
Ltd, Transcend Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, ATC Telecom Tower Corp Pvt Ltd)
into ATC Telecom Infrastructure Pvt Ltd (ATC TIPL)
- April
2018 Vodafone completed sale of their standalone 10,200 towers to ATC for
Rs 3850 Cr.
- In
the middle of May 2018 Bharti Airtel has proposed a merger of Bharti
Infratel and Indus Towers. The merged entity will be named as Indus Towers
with 1,63,000 towers across 22 telecom circles of the country and with
valuation of $ 14.6 billion (Rs 965,000 cr). That will be 2nd largest
tower company after China Tower.
- In
end of May 2018 Idea Cellular completed the sale of their standalone 9,900
towers to ATC at Rs 4,000 crore.
- In
October 2018, Tata sold 13% stakes and IDFC sold its total stakes in ATC
TIPL to ATC.
2019-2020:
- In March 2019 Reliance Jio spined off its fiber and tower assets into two seperate infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) - Jio Digital Fibre Pvt Ltd (JDFPL) and Reliance Jio Infratel Pvt Ltd. (RJIPL). RJIPL is owned by Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Ltd (51%) and RIL (49%). Jio Infratel had 45000 towers from Reliance Infratel (of RCom), and remaining 1,25,000 - 1,30,000 built by them. However, many of them, nearly 25% of these towers are monopole, i.e. not suitable for tenants. Jio has target to build up 2,60,000 towers in next 6-12 months.
JDFPL(Jio Digital Fibre Pvt Ltd), founded as special purpose vehicle (SPV) to hold optical fiber assets transferred from RJIL, is held 51% by Digital Fiber Infrastructure Trust (DFIT) and 49% by RIL. RIIHL (Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Ltd) is the sponsor of the Trust (DFIT) and holds 15% of the units issued by it. ADIA (Abu Dhabi Investment Authority) and PIF (Public Investment Fund) hold a total of 51% of the units, with 34% held by entities of the RIHPL group, viz. SPTL (Sikka Ports & Terminals Ltd) and JUPPL (Jamnagar Utilities & Power Pvt Ltd).
- In
April 2019 Tata Tele sold off remaining 13% stake to ATC. ATC will have
90% share in ATC TIPL now.
- In
June 2019 it has been heard that a consortium led by Brookfield Asset
Management will buy Jio Infratel with 1,70,000 towers portfolio.
- In
July 20, 2019 it has been disclosed that Canada's Brookfield
Infrastructure Partners L.P. and its affiliates will buy Jio Infratel,
tower arm of Jio in multi-phases. The investment value is Rs 25,215 crore
($3.66 billion).
- In
September 2019, it has been known that Indus Towers and Bharti Infratel is
in final stages of merger. Post merger Bharti, Vodafone India and Birla
backed Idea Cellular will cut down stakes in the entity. Experts assume
that Sunil Mittal backed Bharti may also leave tower biz in a phased
manner, in a longer time period. It's been in news that ATC and Brookfield
are also eyeing for stakes in Indus+Bharti Infratel merged biz.
- In
December 2019 GIC (Singapore's sovereign wealth fund) and a group of
investors including Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP announced
acquisition of Jio's tower assets of nearly 1,35,000 towers for Rs 25,200
crore. Government approval came in September 2020.
- Nov
21, 2020: Bharti Infratel & Indus Towers got merged - Vi sell
out its 11.15% stake in the merged entity. Prior to the merger,
shareholding in Indus Towers was Bharti Infratel (42%), Vodafone Group
(42%), Idea Cellular (11.15%) and PS Asia Holding Investments (Mauritius)
Limited or Providence Equity Partners (4.85%).
- Post
merger Bharti Airtel have 36.7%, Vodafone Group holds 28.12%, PS Asia
Holding Investments (Mauritius) Limited (Providence) have 3.25%, Canadian
pension fund CPPIB holds 2.17%, and US PE fund KKR owns 4.85% of Indus
Towers.
- Nov
26, 2020: Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approves that ATC
can buy out Tata Group's 12.32% share in ATC India's subsidiary ATC TIPL.
ATC would be spending Rs 2480 cr to mark Tata Group's exit from tower
biz.
- During
anytime from October to December, 2020 Jio Infratel was rebranded as
Summit Digitel. Jio Infratel was acquired by Canada-based Brookfield
Infrastructure Partners LP, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC and
other institutional partners in September 2020.
- December
2020, Summit Digitel joins Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association
(TAIPA).
2021-07/2023:
- July 2021: Brookfield backed Summit Digitel acquired Space Teleinfra for Rs 900 crore. Space Teleinfra was a shared telecom infrastructure provider for voice and data connectivity. Ankit Goel and Radhey R Sharma founded STIPL in 2016 with a focus on providing telecom infrastructure to mobile network operators for Outdoor Small Cells (ODSC), in-building solutions (IBS), and Roof Top Towers. The company has a well spread customer base across all the three major mobile operators, with a pan-India presence. Post-acquisition, STIPL was rebranded as Crest Digitel Private Limited. With this acquisition Summit Digitel grabs 6,300 indoor business solution sites and small cell sites, which advances the rollout of 5G and enables telecom operators to extend their coverage capacity in difficult-to-access and dense areas.
- September 2021: TAIPA did a makeover as Digital Infrastructure Providers Association (DIPA)
- Q1 of 2022: Vodafone UK sold its 2.4 % stake in Indus via a block deal and another 4.7% to Bharti Airtel. Thus, Vodafone UK raised Rs 3831 Cr, most of which reinvested in Vi.
- New
York-Headquartered Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) acquired Ascend
Telecom Infrastructure in June 2022 [through entities such as India
Infrastructure Fund II (IIF-II), GIP EM Ascend 2 Pte Ltd and GIP EM Ascend
Pte Ltd] as New Silk Route sold off their stake.
- August
2022: Canadian pension fund Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ)
is in talks with Vodafone Plc to buy complete or partial stake of Vodafone
Plc in Indus Towers (21%). The talks are in preliminary stage. Earlier
Vodafone had talks with American Tower Co and Crown Castle International
but nothing materialized.
- In
April end, 2023 ATC India had talks with Canada's Brookfield (who owns
Jio's tower assets under Summit Digitel branding) to sell 100% stake of
Indian tower unit. ATC had talks with US infrastructure fund Stonepeak
Partners, Macquarie and KKR & Co but response had been lukewarm. ATC
initially wanted to sell 50% but no takers compelled them to think about
full buyout. ATC has good number of cell sites across the country, but
their main tenant is Vi, which has questionable future. Therefore, the
business in coming days could not be as profitable as now.
- End of June, 2023 we are getting updates that Florida based private equity firm I Squared Capital (https://www.isquaredcapital.com) may buy ATC India. ISC may buy 90% while New York based investment firm Stonepeak may buy remaining 10%. Or they both can bid for ATC India's complete buyout. The major concern in this buyout is difference in enterprise valuation - as Boston based ATC valuing its Indian arm at $ 4billion while ISC and Stonepeak could bid at $ 1.8-2.2 billion. ATC India (https://atctower.in/en/index.html) notes that ATC India has approx 78300 sites.
08/2023 - 2024:
- In
August 2023 Ascend Telecom acquired 100% stake of Tower Vision. GIP EM
Ascend 2 Pte. Ltd. (GIP EM), controlled by Global Infrastructure
Management LLC (GIM LLC) is the second partner of Ascend in the deal. With
this acquisition, Ascend grabs around 18000+ towers in India. (approx.
9,000 from Tower Vision) It also marks Ascend to become 4th
largest towerco in the country.
- In December 2023, Brookfield backed DIT (Data Infrastructure Trust) has formed a new subsidiary - Roam Digitel, dedicated for tower acquisition and construction.
- On
January 6, 2024 Brookfield announced it would acquire 100% of ATC India.
ATC India will be acquired by Data Infrastructure Trust (DIT), an
infrastructure investment trust sponsored by an affiliate of Brookfield
Asset Management. Worth $2.5-billion valuation, the acquisition is
expected to be completed by Q2 of 2024. Summit Digitel has approx.
1,75,000 towers across India (including approx. 35,000 new towers deployed
by them post-acquisition of Jio's tower assets). As Brookfield backed DIT
acquired ATC India's 78,300 towers - the tower sites increase to 2,53,000
making Summit Digitel the largest tower company in India, beating Bharti
Airtel backed Indus Towers (with approx. 2,00,000 towers). This deal marks
ATC’s exit from India.
- January 2024: Blackrock acquired New York-Headquartered Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), thus Ascend Telecom Infrastructure became Blackrock’s subsidiary.
- February
2024: February 2024: KKR & Co via its Singaporean arm, Silver View
Portfolio Investments sold its entire 4.85% stake in Indus Tower through
open market transaction for Rs 2749.6 crore. That's a loss of 35% on KKR's
investment of Rs 4251 crore in 2017.
At the same time Canada Pension
Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) also sold 2.13% shares (kept 2.19% in Bharti
Infratel, translating only 0.05% in Indus) in a similar way. The sell value was
Rs 1223.4 crore, that 37% loss of CPPIB's investment of Rs 1965 crore in 2017.
- June
2024: Vodafone Group Plc sold off 18% stake in Indus Towers, keeping only
3.1% share in Indus. While Vodafone Idea (Vi) still retain a share in
Indus, and Indus also owns some shares of Vi, in a deal whereby it
received shares in exchange for unpaid dues for tenancies on its towers.
- July 2024: Vi enters into a partnership with a new company in the infrastructure provider market, SAR Televenture Pvt. Ltd. SAR will deploy 5,000 new 4G small cell sites, with the rollouts expected to start in the January-March quarter of 2025, underlining the telco's swift moves to beef up its services.
- September
2024: Brookfield-lead consortium takes control of ATC India. Data
Infrastructure Trust (DIT), an Infrastructure Investment Trust backed
by Canada's Brookfield Asset Management alongwith other investors
including British Columbia Investment Management Corp (BCI) and GIC Pvt.
Ltd (Singapore) completed 100% acquisition of ATC India for an enterprise
value of Rs 18,200 crore ($2.2 billion). With this buyout Brookfield would
get approx. 76,000 towers from ATC India and its tower portfolio goes to
2,57,000 – making it largest tower company of India (also globally minus
China). Just positioned from 1st to 2nd, Bharti Airtel backed Indus Towers
have 2,25,910 towers as of June 2024.
Before acquisition,
Brookfield-backed DIT houses Summit Digitel and Crest Digitel and is managed by
its Investment Manager, Data Link, an affiliate of Brookfield. After
this acquisition, Summit Digitel, Crest Digitel, and ATC India will be combined
under the new brand name, Altius.
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