Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Aug 07, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version | Audio | Blogs
Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Aug 07, 2009 ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version | Audio | Blogs |
|
|
|
|
|
Info-Tech
-
Infrastructure Tata Tele(M) to shed 49% in tower arm
Our Bureau Mumbai, Aug. 6 Tata Teleservices Maharashtra (TTML) intends to sell up to 49 per cent stake in its tower subsidiary, 21st Century Infratel, to potential investors, a top company official said. “We got the enabling resolution from our shareholders for the same last year. However, we were waiting for the right valuations. We are now in discussions with merchant bankers for the same,” its Chief Financial Officer, Mr S. Venkatesan, told reporters on the sidelines of a news conference on Thursday. However, he did not comment on the valuation that the firm expects for the tower business. Indian tower companies are seen to have huge growth potential, riding on the low current mobile penetration coupled with high sharing potential as new operators roll out their services . Therefore, most of the mobile operators have demerged their tower infrastructure business into new companies in a bid to unlock value. TTML said it has increased the number of towers under 21st Century Infra Tel, from 1,300 to 2,000 over the past year. The occupancy ratio on its towers is currently around 1.4 tenants per tower; Mr Venkatesan sees that moving to 1.7-2 by the year-end. Debt recastSeparately, TTML is in the process of recasting its debt portfolio by converting most of its short term debt into long term, said Mr Venkatesan.. The company has a debt of Rs 3,150 crore, half of which matures in the short-term, said Mr Venkatesan. Last year, the company had taken short-term debt for GSM fees and other expenditure. Now the firm is in talks with banks to extend the tenure for that and for most of the other debt that it has on its books. The average tenure of TTML`s long-term debt is around three years, added Mr Venkatesan. NTT DoCoMo open to hiking stake in Tata Tele Changes in Tata Tele (Maha) board Tata Tele merges tower biz with Quippo More Stories on : Infrastructure | Telecommunications
Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | The Hindu ePaper | Business Line | Business Line ePaper | Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | The Hindu Images | Home |
Copyright © 2009, The
Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu Business Line
|