VOD Vodafone Group Plc

By Adam Clark

Vodafone Group PLC (VOD.LN) said on Wednesday that its affliate Indus Towers will merge with fellow Indian mobile-tower operator Bharti Infratel Ltd. (534816.BY).

The merger will be conducted on a basis of the issue of 1,565 Bharti Infratel shares for each Indus Tower share, with the combined entity to be named Indus Towers Ltd. The enlarged company will have an enterprise value of $10.80 billion, Vodafone said.

Vodafone's current 42% shareholding in Indus Towers will be exchanged for 783.1 million new shares in the combined company, valued at $4.30 billion. Vodafone will jointly control the combined company alongside Bharti Airtel Ltd. (532454.BY), the controlling shareholder of Bharti Infratel.

Indian mobile network operator Idea Cellular Ltd. (532822.BY) has the option to sell its 11% holding in Indus Towers for cash, or receive new shares. U.S. firm Providence Equity also has the option to sell a 3.3% stake in Indus for cash, and will receive new shares for its remaining 1.5% holding.

The combined company operates more than 163,000 mobile towers across India and will benefit from a simplification of its organizational structure and general cost efficiencies, Vodafone said. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals, and is expected to complete before the end of March 2019.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@dowjones.com; @AdamDowJones

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 25, 2018 03:06 ET (07:06 GMT)

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