Idea Cellular completes sale of its standalone towers to ATC for Rs 40 billion

Idea Cellular has completed the sale of its pan-Indian stand-alone tower business, by way of divesting its entire stake in ICISL, a wholly owned subsidiary, to ATC Telecom Infrastructure Private Limited (ATC). The transaction was closed at an enterprise value of Rs 40 billion for approximately 9,900 stand-alone towers. Vodafone’s sale of its stand-alone tower business to ATC has already been completed at an enterprise value of Rs 38.5 billion. After the completion of the Vodafone India and Idea merger, 6,300 co-located tenancies of the two operators on the combined standalone tower portfolio will collapse into single tenancies over a period of two years without the payment of exit penalties. Both Vodafone India and Idea as customers, and ATC as a vendor, have agreed to treat each other as long-term preferred partners, subject to existing arrangements.