Indus Towers' stock tumbles ~12% as Vodafone Group decides to cut off stake

24 Feb 2022 , 10:28 AM

Earlier on February 23, 2022, the British telecom giant, Vodafone, announced a block deal to sell off its 2.4% stake in India’s largest telecom tower operator, Indus Towers.

Currently, Vodafone Group Plc holds a 28.1% stake, holding 757.80 million shares in Indus Tower Limited. Out of this, the company has recently pledged a 7.1% shareholding to Indus Towers as part of the security arrangements entered into between Vodafone and Indus during the merger proceedings of Indus Towers with Bharti Infratel.

Vodafone will place 2.40% of its holding or 63.60 million shares in Indus through an accelerated book-building offering. Morgan Stanley is the advisor to the deal.

The promoters of Vodafone group currently hold 28.12% stake in the company, whilst promoters of Joint venture Indus Towers, and Bharti Airtel holds 41.73%.

Vodafone is also in talks with one of the largest shareholders in Indus to purchase the company’s remaining share in Indus Towers. However, no clear disclosure has been made by the company in this regard.

Apart from this, Vodafone is also in discussions with potential buyers for sale of company’s residual shareholding of 21% as the British telecom operator is eyeing a complete exit from Indus.
Indus Towers tanked 12.42% following the telecom operator’s announcement to pare stake in the company. At around 10.38 AM, it was trading at Rs220.40 against its previous closing price of Rs251.65. It touched day’s high and low of Rs239 and Rs215.55 respectively.