Vodafone Group plans to sell an almost 18% stake in India’s Indus Towers for up to $2 billion. This is a significant increase from the approximately 10% stake they initially intended to sell.
The telecom company, which holds a 21.5% stake in Indus Towers, plans to use the proceeds from the sale to repay debt, according to a report by Reuters last week. In 2022, Vodafone announced its intention to sell its entire stake in the Indian firm.
As of 1:06 PM, shares of Indus Towers were trading 2.55% higher at ₹17.28 on the NSE.
About the block deal –
Vodafone Group has offloaded 20% of its equity stake in Indus Towers through block deals on June 19. This transaction involved 53.30 crore shares of the mobile tower company, totaling Rs 17,065 crore.
The identities of the buyers were not immediately clear, but reports suggest that private equity firms I Squared Capital and Stonepeak were among those interested in acquiring Vodafone’s stake.
Abhilash Pagaria, Head of Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research, noted that this sale would likely result in a float adjustment for Indus Towers in passive indices soon. He anticipated a global passive flow impact of $200 million, with an expected $130 million inflow through the MSCI index and another $65 million through FTSE changes.
Vodafone Group had previously announced plans to offload nearly 10% of its stake in Indus Towers to raise $1.1 million. More recently, a Reuters report indicated Vodafone’s intention to sell its entire $2.3 billion stake in Indus Towers as part of a strategy to reduce its substantial net debt of $42.17 billion.
