The government today approved private equity firm Providence Equity Partners' Rs 2704 crore purchase of a 20 per cent stake in Aditya Birla Telecom (ABTL), a unit of Idea Cellular, the country's fifth-largest mobile operator.
ABTL owns telecom licences in Jharkhand and Bihar. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has also approved Idea's plan to transfer to ABTL its 16 percent holding in Indus Towers, a joint venture mobile tower company with Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar.
ABTL will use the funds for expansion activities including network rollout and ongoing operations. The company is expected to launch services in the Bihar circle,
The CCEA also approved Idea Cellular’s proposal to transfer to ABTL its 16 per cent holding in tower company Indus Towers. ABTL also holds 50,000 equity shares of Idea Cellular Towers Infrastructure Ltd.
Indus Towers - a joint venture firm among Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar and Idea Cellular - owns 70,000 base transceiver stations (BTS), of which 12,000 belong to Idea Cellular.