Tata-Quippo eyeing PE funds for Aircel arm

Tata-Quippo, the telecom tower venture between the Tatas and Kolkata-based Kanorias of Srei group, is in advanced stages of negotiations with New York-based private equity fund Apollo Management to finance acquisition of cellular operator Aircel’s tower assets, should it win the bid.

A person having direct knowledge of the matter said that Tata-Quippo had emerged as the front-runner for the acquisition of Aircel’s 12,000 towers, pegged at around $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion (Rs 5,555 crore to Rs 6,945 crore at current exchange rate), and had submitted its bid last week.

Other bidders included Reliance Infratel, a subsidiary of Reliance Communications, Global Telesystems, or GTL, and Indus, a company that controls the tower assets of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular. Some more are expected to follow suit, said the person, requesting anonymity.

The person said Apollo Management, one of the leading private equity firms in the world which manages over $37 billion of investor funds, was willing to provide as much as $1 billion to finance Tata-Quippo’s acquisition of the tower assets of Aircel. If completed, it will be the single-largest private equity investment in India. (Source: ET)