Quippo-WTTIL Acquires Tower Business of Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra)

QUIPPO-WTTIL, the world’s largest independent telecom infrastructure company and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) announced a share purchase agreement for the sale by TTML of its 100% stake in 21st Century Infra Tele Ltd. (TFCITL), the tower arm of TTML, to Quippo-WTTIL. As part of this deal, TFCITL’s entire portfolio of 2535 towers in Mumbai, Maharashtra and Goa will be acquired by QUIPPO-WTTIL at an enterprise value of Rs. 1318 crore. The transaction will provide strategic advantage to
QUIPPO-WTTIL as it will complement the tower portfolio of the company in Mumbai, Maharashtra and Goa, where QUIPPO-WTTIL does not have a significant presence currently. The TFCITL portfolio, with a high tenancy ratio of 2.15, will further strengthen QUIPPO-WTTIL’s current tenancy ratio which is in excess of 2. This transaction will take the overall portfolio of QUIPPO-WTTIL to over 38000 towers nationally, further consolidating its leadership position in the industry - both from a portfolio and tenancy perspective.

The acquisition of TFCITL will give QUIPPO-WTTIL a strong countrywide footprint by strengthening its presence in the new geographies. Mumbai being a metro is one of the most attractive circles, where site acquisition is difficult & therefore inorganic strategy will help the company in gaining a ready presence in this market. This transaction will also bring immense benefit to QUIPPO-WTTIL with the 3G and WiMax auctions to be conducted shortly and hence the additional requirements for towers in these strategically important geographies, especially Mumbai. The deal will help QUIPPO-WTTIL leverage the combined network strength and capture new customers, thereby enhancing the tenancy further.

Announcing the deal, Sunil Kanoria, Director, QUIPPO-WTTIL said “With a modest beginning in 2005, and subsequent to our partnership with Tata Teleservices last year, today we are the world’s largest independent telecom infrastructure company. It has been an extremely exciting and gratifying journey within a short duration. The acquisition complements our tower portfolio in the strategically important markets, at the same time providing us a contiguous network nationally. The proposed transaction will result in a renewed robust organisation with enhanced product profile in new geographies, economies of scale with numerous cost benefits due to operational synergies and a stronger financial position, thereby resulting in greater shareholder value”.

As part of this deal, QUIPPO-WTTIL has also received a confirmed commitment of approx. 4000 towers roll-out over a period of five years from TFCITL in Mumbai, Maharashtra and Goa. The deal takes the partnership of Quippo with Tata Teleservices, which began last year, to the next level. This is a classic example of the endeavour of two like-minded partners coming together to create an independent world-class telecom infrastructure company.