Brookfield Acquires ATC India's Assets

Brookfield has acquired 100% of American Tower Corp (ATC)'s Indian unit for $2.5-billion valuation as announced on January 4, 2024. ATC India is the one of the leading independent Passive Telecom Infrastructure Providers in India. The acquisition is expected to be completed by Q2 of 2024. 

ATC India started its journey in 2007 by erecting towers for mobile operators in Orissa and Bihar. After that ATC India continued its growth by acquisition of other companies - Xcel Telecom (May 2009), Transcend Infrastructure (November 2009), Essar Telecom Infrastructure (February 2010), Viom Networks (majority stake in April 2016; complete acquisition in April 2019), Vodafone Tower Holdings (April 2018) Idea Cellular Infrastructure Services Ltd (ICISL) (May 2018). 

India's Tower Companies Could Invest Rs 2 Trillion by 2025 for 5G Roll Out, Timeline of Tower Companies of India

There was a old post from 2017 - regarding the tower companies of India. However after Jio's entry with 4G in 2016 the scenario of Indian Telecom had changed a lot. As the mobile service providers saw ruthless merger and acquisition, the same came for tower space too. 

At present there are only handful of tower companies in India - top three companies are Summit Digitel, Indus Towers, American Tower Co. , just like the three pvt. telecom service providers - Jio, Airtel and Vi. Though in this space there are few smaller players survived - GTL, Aster.

As 5G is coming, the tower companies have found new zeal - by 2025 their investment could reach Rs 2 trillion to take care of 5G roll out.