Reliance to Sell Tower Assets to GTL
Reliance Communications Ltd. said Sunday it agreed to sell the tower assets of its Reliance Infratel unit to Indian telecom infrastructure company GTL Infrastructure Ltd. as it seeks to reduce its debt and fund expansion.
Reliance Communications and GTL said the deal, for an undisclosed sum, will create a combined entity with more than 80,000 towers and an enterprise value of more than 500 billion Indian rupees ($11 billion).
It is the first stake sale in any Reliance ADA Group company, headed by billionaire Anil Ambani, which had been stifled by a right-of-first-refusal clause under a 2005 agreement between Mr. Ambani and his older brother Mukesh Ambani. The noncompete pact recently was scrapped.
The Reliance Infratel deal seeks to establish an independent tower firm that could attract other competing telecom operators to lease space as demand for such infrastructure surges in India, the world’s fastest growing telecom market.
