Kohlberg Kravis Roberts will invest $250 million in Bharti Infratel, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel. This is in addition to the $1 billion investment in Bharti Infratel by leading international investors Temasek Holdings, The Investment Corporation of Dubai, Goldman Sachs, Macquarie, AIF Capital, Citigroup & India Equity Partners in December 2007.
The enterprise value of Bharti Infratel is $10-12.5 billion, with the final valuation to be determined on the basis of Bharti Infratel's actual operating performance in FY 2008-09.
Bharti Infratel owns 20,000 sites and holds 42 per cent stake in Indus Towers, the recently announced joint venture between Bharti, Vodafone and Idea, which has over 70,000 sites. Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers will provide passive infrastructure services to all wireless telecom operators in India on a non-discriminatory basis. Sharing of passive infrastructure results in capex and opex savings and higher capital efficiency for all wireless operators, enabling quicker roll out of services, especially in rural areas.
Source: Economic Times