Close on the heels of acquiring the US-based ethernet services provider, Yipes, for $300 million, the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani-owned Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom) has entered into another deal to sell off 5% stake in its tower company, Reliance Telecom Infrastructure Ltd (RTIL), to a group of 7 undisclosed investors for Rs 1,400 crore ($337.5 million).
The deal pegs the equity valuation of the company at Rs 27,000 crore ($6.75 billion). RTIL is also evaluating a possible initial public offering (IPO) or equity placements.
RTIL?s equity valuation translates to nearly Rs 135 per RCom equity shares, which is nearly 25% of RCom?s current market price of Rs 565 per share.
When listed, shareholders of RCom will get one share of RTIL for every RCom shares held, an RCom executive said.
RTIL has planned a Rs 8,000 crore capital outlay for financial year ending March 2008, in order to add another 23,000 new wireless towers, which will initially have a capacity to co-locate 4 tenants, from the present number of 13, 849 towers.
Anil Dhirubhai Ambani, chairman, RCom, said, ?Our strategy to create a separate company for infrastructure business has resulted in tremendous unlocking of value for our shareholders.?
The offering was oversubscribed with a total order book in excess of $2 billion, he added.
The RCom stock on Thursday closed at Rs 579.30 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) with a gain of Rs 12.10 or 2.13 %. The stock opened at Rs 568.50, touched an intra-day high of Rs 586.90 and a low of Rs 568.20. In the last one week, the stock has gained Rs 17.80 or 3.17% on the BSE.