Bharti Infratel in race to buy Idea, Voda towers for Rs 5,000 cr

Bharti Infratel in race to buy Idea, Voda towers for Rs 5,000 cr

The company is also scouting for telecom tower acquisition opportunities in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh with its Rs 7,646-crore cash kitty.Bharti Infratel already owns a 42 per cent stake in Indus Towers - a three-way venture between Bharti, Vodafone and Idea - and possesses 84,000 towers across India. Vodafone owns 25,000 towers, while Idea owns 9,446 towers in India. Bankers say it would cost Bharti Infratel anywhere between Rs 4,500 crore and Rs 5,000 crore to buy out the towers from Idea and Vodafone.

Both Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers are market leaders in terms of number of towers and revenue generation.

Bharti Infratel's shares have shot up 70 per cent since January and it closed at Rs 290 apiece on the BSE on Thursday. The BSE Sensex is up 29 per cent in the same period. The company, which has Rs 7,646 crore of cash as of March this year, told analysts that the company would even consider buyback if the Ministry of Company Affairs allowed it use share-premium account (at around Rs 3,600 crore) for buybacks