Bharti Infratel stock gains nearly 2% after exchanges clear proposed merger with Indus Towers

Bharti Infratel share price gained 1.6 percent intraday Wednesday after stock exchanges cleared the proposed merger between the company and Indus Towers.

The tower infrastructure services provider informed that 'no adverse observation' letter has been received from the Stock Exchange for the proposed merger of Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers.

The company said it would file the first motion petition before the National Company Law Tribunal in due course.

Earlier this month Bharti Infratel had received approval of Competition Commission of India (CCI) for the proposed merger.

In April, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone Group Plc had agreed to merge Vodafone's, Idea Group's and Providence Equity Partners’ respective shareholdings in Indus Towers into Bharti Infratel, creating a combined company that will own 100 percent of Indus Towers.

Indus Towers is currently jointly owned by Bharti Infratel (with 42 percent stake), Vodafone (42 percent), Idea Group (11.15 percent) and Providence (4.85 percent).

Indus Towers currently operates in 15 telecom service areas (circles) and Bharti Infratel’s operations are focused on the remaining 7 Circles.

Taken together, Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers had over 163,000 towers and 367,000 tenancies as of March 2018.

The combined company, which will fully own the respective businesses of Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers, will change its name to Indus Towers and will continue to be listed on the Indian Stock Exchanges.

Bharti Airtel and Vodafone will jointly control the combined company, in accordance with the terms of a new shareholders' agreement. The transaction is expected to complete before the end of the financial year ending March 31, 2019.