American Tower To Buy Tower Business From Idea And Vodafone In India For $1.2bln

(RTTNews) - American Tower Corp. (AMT) announced that ATC Telecom Infrastructure Private Limited, its majority owned Indian subsidiary, has agreed with Vodafone India Limited and Idea Cellular Limited to Acquire Tower Businesses for INR 78.5 billion, or about $1.2 billion cash at current exchange rates.

The transactions are expected to be immediately accretive to AFFO per share, and the deal is expected to close in the first half of 2018. Under deal, the company will add about 20,000 communications sites to its existing Indian portfolio.

As part of the transactions, ATC TIPL, Vodafone and Idea have established a preferred partner structure under which Vodafone and Idea, given their expanded relationship with ATC TIPL, will receive service level and process efficiency benefits and ATC TIPL will secure certain preferential rights for future new business commencements on its existing portfolio and on the sites being acquired in certain Indian markets.

The transactions are expected to generate approximately INR 21 billion (approximately $320 million) in property revenue and approximately INR 8 billion (approximately $120 million) in gross margin during their first full year in American Tower's portfolio, at current exchange rates. Further, SG&A associated with the assets is expected to be less than INR 1 billion (approximately $10 million) for the first year.