CCI approves Bharti Infratel-Indus Towers merger

Bharti Infratel has received a go ahead from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for the merger of itself and Indus Towers, the country's largest tower providing company."Pursuant to Regulation 30 of SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, we are pleased to inform you that approval of Competition Commission of India (CCI) has been received for the proposed merger of Bharti Infratel Limited and Indus Towers Limited," the tower arm of India's largest carrier Bharti Airtel said in a statement to the exchanges on Monday morning. The company's scrip fell 1.2% to Rs 297.80 on the Bombay Stock Exchange in early trade. The Sunil Mittal-driven mobile infrastructure company is merging its operations with Indus Towers that has Vodafone India and Idea Cellular as stakeholders to create a $14.6 billion company which will be one of the largest mobile tower entities worldwide with 1.63 lakh towers. Indus Towers is currently jointly owned by Bharti Infratel (42%), Vodafone (42%), Aditya Birla’s Idea group (11.15%) and Providence (4.85%).Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, according to the companies, will jointly control the combined company, in accordance with the terms of a new shareholders’ agreement.CCI is the first approval among several approvals that are required, including from SEBI, NCLT, DoT (FDI approval), and is expected to close before the end of the financial year ending March 31, 2019.

from The Economic Times https://ift.tt/2KH5n6R