Bharti Airtel plans to raise Rs 45 billion by listing its tower company, Bharti Infratel, say news reports.
The operator has started the process of listing its infrastructure arm. It is working on the draft red herring prospectus for the initial public offering (IPO) and expects to file it with the Securities and Exchange Board of India by September 2012.
The IPO will give a large number of private equity (PE) firms an option to exit Bharti Infratel. Six PE firms, including Singapore?s Temasek, The Investment Corporation of Dubai, Goldman Sachs, Macquarie, AIF Capital, and Citigroup and India Equity Partners, invested $1 billion in the tower company in December 2007 while Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co invested another $250 million in Bharti Infratel in February 2008.
The company plans to invite global investment banks like Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and HSBC, among others to participate in the bidding process before finalising on the investment bank that will assist it in filing the IPO for Bharti Infratel.
