GTL completes Aircel tower deal

Tuesday, 20 July 2010, 21:32 IST   |    3 Comments
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Mumbai: The world's largest independent telecom masts company GTL Infrastructure on Monday said it has completed the acquisition of 17,500 telecom towers of Aircel and expects an immediate annual revenue of 720 crore from the deal. Besides, after getting an additional business from Aircel, GTL Infra may receive a recurring revenue of another 600-650 crore per annum, taking the aggregate annual revenue to 1,350-1,400 crore from this transaction, the company said in a statement after a board meeting in Mumbai on Monday. GTL Infra had acquired the 17,500 telecom masts of Aircel for 8,026 crore in January. As per the deal, GTL Infra got 17,500 towers with 21,000 active tenants on these towers. It has also received a commitment (backed by bank guarantee) of additional 20,000 tenancies over next three years from Aircel. Completing the deal, GTL had said the transaction has made it the world's largest independent tower company with a portfolio of around 32,500 towers across all the 23 telecom circles in the country. In June, the company had also got into a deal with Rcom, which merged its tower arm with GTL Infra in a 50,000-crore merger deal, under which RCom's 50,000 towers would come under the GTL umbrella. Besides, the transaction has also enabled GTL Infra to achieve a sizable tower portfolio in high average revenue per user (Arpu) generating metros and class A cities, which would help in attracting new 2G/3G/broadband wireless access (BWA) operators. Aircel has won 3G and BWA license in 13 and 8 circles respectively. Since GTL Infra has a sizable tower portfolio in all the respective circles, it can cater to 3G and BWA requirements of Aircel in an effective manner.
Source: PTI