The board of Bharti Infratel, a subsidiary of Indian telco Bharti Airtel, has approved the merger with Indus Towers on August 31.
Bharti Airtel is, in turn, an associate company of mainboard-listed Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel).
In a statement dated September 1, the board says it has authorised Bharti Infratel’s chairman to proceed with the scheme and to comply with other procedural requirements for completion of the merger including approaching the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to make the scheme “effective” subject to certain procedural condition precedents.
Based on the adjustments, current Infratel shareholders will hold the majority of 68.6%, followed by 31.4% for Indus Towers, 28.2% for Vodafone, and 3.2% for Indus Towers investor Provident Equity Partners (PEP).
To secure the payment obligation of Vodafone Idea (VIL) under the master service agreements, Vodafone Idea and Vodafone Group have entered into certain security arrangements with Bharti Infratel for the benefit of the merged company.
The completion of the transaction is still subject to “receipt of all such approvals” despite the parties’ agreement to proceed to progress the approvals for the merger.
As at 1.01pm, shares in Singtel were trading 2 cents lower, or 0.9% down, at $2.28.
