American Tower Corp In Talks With Gurgaon Tower Minnow

American Tower Corporation (ATC), one of the world's largest standalone telecom tower firm, is in talks to acquire Gurgaon-based Independent Mobile Infrastructure Ltd (IMIL). This development comes just two weeks after ATC's acquisition of Xcel Telecom for around Rs 800 crore. IMIL has a presence in 10 circles with around 400 towers, of which only 125 have tenants, reports Economic Times. Since the occupancy is low, the company is expected to get a valuation of Rs 120 crore at the upper end, the report added. IMIL was founded by Jide J Zeitlin, a former partner at Goldman Sachs, in 2006 and is promoted by his private equity firm Keffi Group. The firm is now reportedly closing down most of its India operations.
The telecom infrastructure is rapidly consolidating with independent players looking to expand quickly to grab business from new telecom operators. Now, three main independent tower operators - GTL Infrastructure, Tata-Quippo combine and American Tower Corporation - are competing among themselves and with captive operators for the market. Captive players like Indus Towers (a JV of Bharti, Vodafone and Idea), Reliance Telecom Infrastructure and Bharti Infratel currently dominate the market. ATC has around 2,000 tower sites in 15 telecom circles after its acquisition of Xcel Telecom. Biggest independent player in the country is Tata-Quippo with aroound 18,000 towers. It's also said to be in talks for a merger with Essar Telecom Infrastructure, an independent firm with 4,500 towers. GTL Infrastructure Ltd is another player with around 7,000-8,000 towers. Also valuation of telecom towers have been dipping. Bharti Infratel Ltd and Reliance Infratel Ltd valued towers at around Rs 1.6 crore when they divested stake in 2007. In the Tata-Quippo merger towers were valued at Rs 78 lakh, while in the more recent ATC's acquisition of Xcel Telecom valued them at Rs 47 lakh.

American Tower To Acquire Xcel Telecom

Wireless-tower operator American Tower Corporation is close to acquire independent telecom tower operator Xcel Telecom. The Mumbai based company was established in 2006 by former BPL Mobile chief executive Sandip Basu with $500 million in funding from Q Investments. Nasdaq-listed American Tower is acquiring three year old Xcel Telecom for Rs 700 crore, reports Economic Times.

The talks of the deal between the two companies have been going on for some time now. American Tower was in race to acquire a stake in Wireless Tata Telecom Infrastructure Ltd and was also reported to be in race for a stake in Reliance Infratel last month. But its CEO Jim Taiclet had said that the company was interested in operational control of tower assets and not minority stakes.

The telecom tower sector has been going through a process of consolidation. Earlier this year SREI Group-promoted Quipo Telecom Infrastructure Ltd (QTIL) merged with Tata Tele's tower arm with former picking up a 49% stake in latter for Rs 2,400 crore. The combined entity is operating as an independent tower so it can cater to the new entrants.

Xcel Telecom has about 1,000-1,200 towers in the country. With American Tower Corp paying Rs 700 crore, the deal values each tower between Rs 58-70 lakh. This is in range of Tata-Quippo deal, which valued each tower at Rs 61 lakh. Earlier deals involving Reliance Infratel and Bharti Infratel valued each tower between Rs 1.6- 2 crore.

Being an independent tower operator in India is an attractive proposition at this time. There are a number of new entrants coming into the markets which include Swan-Etisalat, Unitech-Telenor, S Tel-Batelco and Datacom. Telecom tower operators will also benefit from the launch of 3G services in India.

There are other independent operators like Gurgaon-based Independent Mobile Infrastructure and GTL Infrastructure.

American Tower to buy India Xcel for $136 mln-paper

U.S.-based American Tower Corp (AMT.N) is set to acquire India's Xcel Telecom in a deal worth more than 7 billion rupees ($136 million), the Economic Times said on Monday, citing a person familiar with the transaction.
Xcel, founded by former BPL Mobile chief executive Sandip Basu, provides shared telecom infrastructure and services for telecom operators in India.
The newspaper said the deal would be announced shortly and would help American Tower gain a foothold in in the world's fastest growing telecom market.

A spokesperson for American Tower declined comment, while Xcel officials did not respond to an email query, the newspaper said. Both companies could not be immediately reached by Reuters.
Independent tower companies like American Tower rent or lease out their towers to mobile phone companies. Towers are passive infrastructure which contain the active components needed to receive and transmit satellite signals for mobile telephony.

American Tower operates more than 23,000 cell sites in the United States, Mexico and Brazil, its website showed. Xcel was incubated by Q Investments, a Texas-based private investment fund. ($1=51.4 rupees) (Reporting by Janaki Krishnan; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)