Vodafone on Wednesday offloaded 18 per cent equity of Indus Towers through open market transactions on the NSE — raking in €1.7 billion (₹15,300 crore) from the sale.

The shares were sold by various entities belonging to the UK-based telecom operator.
Vodafone was expected to initially divest close to 10 per cent but chose to sell more.

Bharti Airtel, which is a promoter of Indus Towers, stepped up its holding as it acquired a little over 2.69 crore shares, which is 1 per cent of the tower company’s equity.

The shares were bought at an average price of ₹320 per share. The Sunil-Mittal led company holds 47.95 per cent in Indu Towers.

“Pursuant to the approval of Special Committee to acquire up to 27 million equity shares of Indus Towers, the company has acquired around 26.95 million (i.e. 1 per cent) equity shares on-market today (Wednesday),” the company said in a regulatory filing

Vodafone said in a statement that the “accelerated book-build offering’’ will be used to substantially repay existing lenders in relation to the outstanding bank borrowings of €1.8 billion secured against Vodafone’s Indian assets.

After the sale, Vodafone will hold 8.25 crore shares in Indus Towers or 3.1 per cent equity. Vodafone did not disclose if these shares will also be sold at a later date.

Stock exchange data showed that Asian Telecommunication Investments (Mauritius), Prime Metals, Euro Pacific Securities, Trans Crystal, Al-Amin Investments, Mobilvest, Vodafone Telecommunications (India) Ltd were the selling entities.

The deals led to the shares of Indus Towers closing at ₹334, down 2.88 per cent on the BSE.

Ahead of the block deal, analysts at JP Morgan said if Vodafone sells its entire stake, the proceeds of $2.3 billion would be first used to repay Vodafone Plc’s lenders and the remaining $0.5 billion (₹4,200 crore) could be used to partly clear Vodafone Idea’s past dues of ₹5,400 crore.

The brokerage added that if the stake sale occurs around the current market price, Indus Towers could see accelerated repayment of dues either from Vodafone Idea or through an equity infusion into the joint venture.

A note from UBS also said that part of the proceeds could be infused into Vodafone Idea which owes some dues to Indus Towers.

A recent report, quoting Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal, said Vodafone Idea should clear all its past dues and if this is not done, the telco will not be allowed to use Indus’s infrastructure for services such as 5G.

Mittal also reportedly disclosed that the Indus Towers board will be flexible with its decision if Vodafone Idea pays a significant amount and gives a schedule for the rest.