In the past two-and-a-half decades, the telecom sector has witnessed significant financing activity in terms of mergers and acquisitions, stake sales, private equity deals and foreign investments. tele.net has identified 25 noteworthy deals that have significantly reshaped the Indian telecom landscape…

 

VSNL gets privatised

Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) was incorporated as a public sector undertaking in 1986. In February 2002, the government divested 25 per cent of its paid-up equity capital in VSNL through a strategic sale to the Tata Group for Rs 14.39 billion. VSNL was acquired by the Tata Group and renamed Tata Communications in 2008.

 

Singtel picks up stake in Airtel

Singtel acquired a stake in Bharti Airtel through multiple transactions, thereby  becoming the single largest foreign investor in an Indian telecom operator in 2011. As of November 2024, Singtel’s share in Bharti Airtel stood at approximately 30 per cent.

 

Airtel lists on the stock exchanges

In 2002, Bharti Airtel became the first private telecom operator in the country to launch an initial public offering (IPO). It was the first IPO to be issued through a 100 per cent book-building process, which helped Bharti Airtel to raise Rs 8.34 billion. The listing of the company’s shares was completed within a record time of 10 working days.

 

Warburg Pincus concludes private equity deal with Airtel

In one of the most profitable deals in the telecom private equity space in India, Warburg Pincus invested an amount of $292 million in Airtel (Bharti Televentures) between 1999 and 2001. It exited in 2005 with a total realisation of $1.61 billion over time.

 

Hutch merges operations with Essar

In 2005, Hutchison consolidated its operations with Essar Telecom to form a new entity, Hutchison Essar Limited. The merged entity became one of the most sought-after operators in the country and was finally acquired by Vodafone Group Plc in 2007.

 

Malaysia’s Maxis acquires Aircel

In 2006, Malaysia-based Maxis Communications acquired a 74 per cent stake in Aircel for $1.8 billion. The deal came under scrutiny in 2011 when Aircel’s owner alleged that it had been pressured to sell its stake to Maxis.

 

Vodafone acquires stake in Hutchison Essar

In 2007, UK-based telecom major Vodafone Plc forayed into the Indian telecom market by acquiring a 67.5 per cent stake in Hutchison Essar for $19.3 billion. The largest telecom deal at the time, it brought the world’s largest telecom operator (in terms of revenue) to India.

 

Telecom industry rivals come together to form Indus Towers

In a unique initiative, market competitors Idea Cellular, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar formed Indus Towers in 2007 to share existing sites and provide passive infrastructure services to all operators on a non-discriminatory basis.

 

Idea Cellular acquires stake in Spice Communications

In 2008, Idea Cellular acquired a 40.8 per cent stake in its rival, Spice Communications, for over Rs 27 billion in shares and cash. The deal helped Idea consolidate its market position and increase its total subscriber market share from 9.5 per cent to 11.1 per cent.

 

NTT DOCOMO acquires a stake in Tata Teleservices Limited

Japan-based NTT DOCOMO acquired a 26.5 per cent stake in Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) for about Rs 127.4 billion in 2009. The deal ended up in a three-year-long judicial tangle between Tata Sons and DOCOMO over the latter’s exit from the joint venture (JV). Finally, in May 2017, the Delhi High Court approved the terms of settlement and NTT exited the JV.

 

Airtel acquires Zain’s African operations

In 2010, Bharti Airtel acquired Zain’s operations in 15 African countries. The $10.7 billion deal marked the second largest overseas acquisition by an Indian corporate after Tata Steel’s acquisition of Corus in 2007.

 

RIL acquires Infotel Broadband

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) made headlines with the acquisition of Infotel Broadband, the sole winner of pan-Indian BWA licences in the June 2010 auction. Just days after the auction, RIL acquired a 95 per cent stake in Infotel Broadband for Rs 48 billion. This landmark deal marked the entry of Reliance Jio, now the country’s largest telco, into the Indian telecom space.

 

Russian government acquires stake in Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited

In 2010, the Russian government acquired a 17.14 per cent stake in Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited (SSTL), a JV between Russia’s Sistema (MTS) and India’s Shyam Group, for $600 million. Later, in 2016, Sistema acquired the Russian government’s stake in SSTL, and the government exited the venture.

 

ATC acquires a majority stake in Viom Networks

In 2015, American Tower Corporation (ATC) acquired a 51 per cent majority stake in Viom Networks for Rs 76.35 billion to become the third largest tower company in the country. The combined entity held a portfolio of 56,000 towers.

 

Vodafone, Idea join hands

In 2017, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular decided to merge their operations in a $23 billion deal. The merger was completed in late August 2018 and led to the creation of Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi), the largest service provider in the country in terms of subscriber market share till November 2019.

 

Airtel acquires Telenor and TTSL

In 2017, Bharti Airtel signed two deals to acquire TTSL and Telenor India. The deal with TTSL involved the transfer of assets in 19 telecom circles, while the one with Telenor comprised seven circles. The Airtel-Telenor merger was completed in 2018, while TTSL’s acquisition was concluded in 2019.

 

Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers announce a mega merger

In 2018, Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers announced their decision to merge and create one of the largest telecom tower companies in the world. The merged entity, renamed Indus Towers Limited, held a portfolio of 163,000 towers spread across all 22 telecom circles.

 

Airtel and Hughes Communications form a JV in the satcom space

In 2019, Bharti Airtel and Hughes Communications India Private Limited decided to form a JV to provide satellite broadband services in India. Hughes emerged as the majority stakeholder in this combined entity, which was created
in 2022.

 

Strategic deals by Jio Platforms

In 2020, Jio Platforms, the digital arm of Reliance Industries, raised over Rs 1 trillion by selling around 25 per cent equity to marquee investors such as Facebook, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala, ADIA, TPG and Public Investment Fund. The move was one of the largest fundraising initiatives in the Indian telecom sector at the time.

 

Brookfield Infrastructure acquires Reliance Jio’s tower assets

In 2020, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP, along with its institutional partners, acquired Reliance Jio’s telecom tower assets. The acquisition included 135,000 telecommunication towers that formed the backbone of Reliance Jio’s telecom
infrastructure.

 

Government sells its stake in Tata Communications as part of its divestment plan

The government exited Tata Communications by selling its 26 per cent stake in the company in 2021 as a part of its divestment plan. A part of the stake was offloaded to retail and non-retail investors through an offer for sale, while some of the stake was sold to Panatone Finvest, a unit of Tata Sons.

 

Bharti Airtel acquires OneWeb India

In 2021, Nettle Infrastructure Investments, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, acquired 100 per cent stake in OneWeb Communications Private Limited, the India unit of UK-based satellite operator OneWeb, in an all-cash deal.

 

Jio acquires Reliance Infratel

In 2022, Reliance Jio, through its subsidiary, completed the acquisition of Reliance Infratel’s assets – more than 43,540 telecom towers and over 178,000 km of laid-out fibre of Reliance Communications. The move marked an end to Reliance Infratel’s two-year-long bankruptcy resolution process.

 

Government becomes the single largest shareholder in Vi

In 2023, Vi opted to convert its entire interest related to spectrum auction instalments and adjusted gross revenue dues to government equity. Following this, the government became the single largest shareholder in the telecom company, holding around 33 per cent of its total outstanding shares after the conversion of its accrued interest liability (on deferred dues) to equity. Meanwhile, the promoter group (comprising the UK’s Vodafone Plc and India’s Aditya Birla Group) collectively retained a 50 per cent stake in the company.

 

Brookfield consortium acquires ATC’s Indian tower business

In 2024, Brookfield Asset Management-backed Data Infrastructure Trust (DIT)acquired the Indian business of the ATC. DIT operates Jio’s telecom towers and this acquisition resulted in the creation of the largest tower portfolio in India (about 257,000 sites) and the biggest platform globally, outside of China. The tower portfolio has been branded as Altius.