American Tower closing in on Tata Tele stake

Relief at last, for the underdog Tata Tele..DNA writes that American Tower Company (ATC) is believed to be the frontrunner among the bidders for investing in the tower firm of Tata Teleservices. Sources suggest a valuation of $2 Bn. from Tata Tele side.

Tata Teleservices MD Anil Sardana says divesture in the tower company would be concluded by the end of May. Tata Tele wants to divest between 26% and 49%. According to the company, around 15 strategic investors were shortlisted for picking up a stake in the hived-off tower entity of Tata Tele.

Indus Towers, the JV tower company between Bharti, Vodafone and Idea, may also look at divesting some of its stake to strategic investors. Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar and Idea merged their tower assets in 16 circles to form an independent tower company Indus Towers. Bharti and Vodafone have 42% stake each in the company while Idea Cellular holds 16% in it.

Temasek, Crown Castle in talks with Tata Teleservices for stake in towers business

Singapore-based government private equity arm Temasek Holdings and wireless tower operator Crown Castle International are in talks to buy around 15% in the mobile phone towers business of Tata Teleservices Limited. Tata Teleservices is in talks with several firms about spinning off its mobile phone towers into a separate unit, part or all of which could then be sold. The tower business of Tata Teleservices has been valued at up to $1 bn. Temasek already holds nearly 10% of the company, which has more than 5000 mobile phone towers. Tata Teleservices, along with subsidiary Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited, has more than 15.5 mn subscribers in India.

Rival firm Reliance Communications Limited is spinning off its towers business into a separate unit. American Tower Corporation as well as private equity firms including Blackstone, Carlyle and Temasek have shown interest in Reliance Communications' towers unit.

Read the article in The Economic Times.

Tata Group ups stake in TTML by 3.5%

The Tata Group has raised its stake in Tata Teleservices Maharashtra (TTML), its publicly listed telecom company. TTML provides telecommunication services in the states of Goa and Maharashtra. The group’s holding in the company has now gone up from 65.5% to 69%. Tata Sons has picked up the unsubscribed portion of TTML’s recent rights issue, thereby increasing its stake by 11%, from 7.86% equity to 18.68%. Tata Teleservices, the Tata Group’s flagship telecom company and the single largest shareholder in Tata Teleservices Maharashtra did not subscribe to the rights issue. Consequently its holding has now decreased from 46.98% to 39%. The other group companies including Tata Power, Tata Investment Corporation and Panatone Finvest have maintained their equity stake by subscribing to the rights issue.

Of late, the Tata Group has been quite in news for such corporate moves where it has raised stake in some group companies including Tata Tea and Tata Coffee. The total indirect foreign holding in TTML would also go down as Tata Teleservices, the parent company of TTML, has foreign equity holding from Singapore government’s private equity arm Temasek Holdings. The board of TTML had approved a rights issue of the size of Rs. 491.14 crores on January 12, 2007 through an aggregate of 288.91 mn equity shares at a price of Rs. 17 per share. The date of allotment of the share was January 17, 2007.

Read The Economic Times article.

Temasek Holdings buys 10% in Tata Sky for Rs. 250 crores; values the DTH provider at Rs. 2500 crores

Singapore-based private fund Temasek Holdings has invested Rs. 250 crores in Tata Sky, the DTH service joint venture between the Tata Group and Star TV, for a 10% stake, belonging to Tata Group holding company Tata Sons. Following this restructuring, Tata Sons' stake has been reduced to 70%, while Star continues to maintain its 20% holding. This is Temasek's second investment in the Tata Group of companies. It had earlier acquired about 10% stake in CDMA service provider Tata Teleservices.

In a related development, Sky TV’s competitor, Dish TV is reportedly in talks with Warburg Pincus for diluting a stake to the latter.

Read the article in The Economic Times.