A bunch of investors, including GIC — the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore — and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, have acquired a 100 per cent stake in a telecom tower company from a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd for $3.4 billion (around Rs 25,000 crore).
Announcing the deal, GIC said the investment comprises a portfolio of around 135,000 communication towers which forms Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd’s (Jio) telecommunication network. GIC said the investors planned to buy more towers, increasing the number of towers in the transaction to around 175,000.
GIC further disclosed that Jio is the anchor tenant of the tower portfolio under a 30-year master services agreement, which will provide the tower company with a secure, long-term source of revenue.
The investors bought the stake from Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Ltd (RIIHL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL).