Vodafone is in talks to sell its 28.1% stake in Indian mobile phone mast business Indus Towers, the telecoms group said today.
The process will involve a secondary placing of 2.4% of its holding, while discussions are underway with one of Indus’ largest shareholders to acquire a further 4.7%.
These shares are currently pledged to Indus under an arrangement set up at the time of the merger between Indus Towers and Bharti Infratel.
Vodafone added it is in talks with several parties over the sale of the remaining 21% stake.
The 28.1% stake in total was valued at around US$2.6bn based on the last closing price of Indus shares, though the UK group said it would invest an unspecified portion of any proceeds into a fundraise by Indian associate and mobile service operator Vodafone Idea (VI).
VI has pencilled in end of March as a deadline to complete a funding round.
Vodafone said that the funding is part of a series of transactions that see the Indian government end up as VI’s largest shareholder.
India has been an ongoing problem for the UK group with ferocious competition in the market there adding to its problems.
Pressure meanwhile has been increasing on Vodafone’s management from activist investors to improve its share price performance.
Recently there have been rumours of a number of deals in the pipeline in Europe and chief executive Nick Read has earmarked consolidation among tower owners as a way for the industry to move forward overall.
Shares in Vodafone rose by 0.4% to 137p.