The Hindu Business Line : Kohlberg Kravis buys 2% stake in Bharti Infratel for $250 m

New Delhi, Feb 6 Bharti Infratel, a wholly-owned mobile tower subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Ltd, announced that private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) has agreed to invest $250 million in Bharti Infratel. The investment will be made by KKR’s Asia dedicated private equity fund and its global private equity fund to buy about two per cent stake in the tower company.

This is the second major investment received by Bharti Infratel. In December 2007, the company had divested close to 10 per cent stake for $1 billion to a clutch of investors including Temasek Holdings, Investment Corporation of Dubai, Goldman Sachs, Macquarie, AIF Capital, Citigroup and India Equity Partners.

The new deal with KKR puts the enterprise valuation of Bharti Infratel in the range of $10-12.5 billion with the final valuation to be determined on the basis of Bharti Infratel’s actual operating performance in FY 2008-09.

Bharti Infratel owns over 20,000 sites and holds an approximately 42 per cent stake in Indus Towers, the recently-announced joint venture between Bharti, Vodafone and Idea, which has over 70,000 sites.

“Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers will provide passive infrastructure services to all wireless telecom operators in India on a non-discriminatory basis. Sharing of passive infrastructure results in capex and opex savings and higher capital efficiency for all wireless operators, enabling quicker rollout of services, especially in rural areas, thus benefiting millions of people,” said a press statement.

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