Cash strapped? Idea to sell its telecom towers for Rs 7,580 crore

In a bid to raise fresh capital, telecom major Idea Cellular, which is a part of the Aditya Birla Group, plans to sell its independent towers for Rs 7,580 crore. And the company is in talks with other telecos such as Malaysia based Axiata, American Tower Corporation and Bharti Infratel.

According to a report by ET, top telecom service providers became debt laden following the spectrum auctions. Since then, they have been looking at ways to infuse fresh capital into the company.

It should be noted that currently Idea has an overall debt of Rs 14,000 crore and had raised Rs 3,000 crore through qualified institutional placement process last year. Rival Bharti Airtel, too raised funds by divesting its African towers assets.

Interestingly, Malaysia’s Axiata, which also has minority stake in the Idea, has been interested in buying the company’s independent tower arm for some years. According to a media report, the foreign company had also submitted a proposal to acquire these towers.

Currently, Idea, the third largest service provider has nearly 11,000 towers in the country.

Image Credit: Indiatimes.com