Vodafone ups stake in Indian telecom Vi, exits Indus Towers
Vodafone Group
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12:15 10/01/25
Vodafone has raised its stake in its Indian joint venture Vodafone Idea (Vi) after selling its investment in the country's mobile tower installation company Indus Towers.
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The UK firm said on Friday it had sold its remaining 3% shareholding in Indus Towers for 28bn INR ($330m), exiting a joint venture set up in 2007 with Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular to provide shared telecom infrastructure. Vodafone has been slowly selling shares in the company since the merger, after which it held a 28.12% stake.
From the sale proceeds, $105m is being used to repay outstanding borrowings secured against its Indian assets and settle transaction fees, while the remaining $225m is being deployed to acquire 1.7bn shares in Vi.
The deal raises its stake in Vi to 24.39% from 22.56% previously.
Mumbai-headquartered Vi is India's third largest mobile telecoms network, originally created in 2018 from the tie-up of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular. As of last September, the telecom had 212m subscribers.