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Mumbai & Kolkata: UK’s Vodafone Group Plc is selling its residual 3% stake in Indus Towers through a block deal and fully exiting the Indian tower company, which is now a Bharti Airtel subsidiary. “ Vodafone Group Plc announces it has launched a placing of its remaining 79.2 million shares in Indus, and such shares, representing 3% of Indus' outstanding share capital through an accelerated book-build offering,” the British telco said in an official statement Wednesday.
Vodafone also intends to contribute the residual proceeds from the Placing towards an issue of new equity shares by Vi, once the terms of such a Capital Raise have been evaluated and decided on by Vi’s board. “The proceeds from the Capital Raise would be used by Vi to pay outstanding master service agreement (MSA) dues to Indus,” the British carrier said. Advt Following the repayment of Vodafone's outstanding borrowings, if any Indus Shares remain, such shares and any proceeds, which are not used by Vodafone to subscribe to new shares in Vi, would be available to Indus to guarantee Vi's obligations under the MSAs.
Under the terms of the security arrangements entered into between UK’s Vodafone and Indus, the Indian tower company has a security over the residual proceeds from the Placing to guarantee obligations from Vi under the Master Services Agreements, the British telco said. Last month, Vodafone had classified its 3% stake in Indus as “other investment”. And in October 2024, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) had cleared Airtel’s proposal to increase its stake Indus Towers.
At present, Airtel owns 50.005% in the towerco. Shares of Indus closed 1.
46% higher at Rs 358.75 on BSE Wednesday. At the towerco’s current market-capitalisation of Rs 94,644.
09 crore, Vodafone’s 3% stake is worth around Rs 2,840 crore ($335 million). At press time, ET’s queries to Vodafone, Indus Towers, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea remained unanswered. In June 2024, Vodafone had sold 18% in Indus — out of its earlier 21.
05% holding — for Rs 15,300 crore through an open market transaction. The stake sale proceeds were largely used to clear the bulk of the UK company’s existing lender dues relating to €1.8 billion of borrowings secured against Indian assets.
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