The bidding process for Aircel’s 12,000-plus tower business has attracted tower companies like American Tower Corporation, Crown Castle International, Reliance Infratel, GTL Infrastructure, the Tata-Quippo combine and Bharti Infratel.
The bids are reportedly in the range of $1.6-$2 billion. Aircel has appointed Nomura, Rothschild and Standard Chartered as advisers for the transaction. The bidding process is likely to take six months. Aircel’s 12,000-plus towers are valued at about $1.5 billion (at Rs 600,000 per tower). The company is planning to use the funds from the transaction to meet its $5 billion panIndian expansion plans, and to bid at the upcoming 3G spectrum auctions.
