Ascend Telecom is reportedly in talks with KKR, Stonepeak Partners and Macquarie Capital about an investment in India’s third largest towerco, according to a report by Mint. This would be the third major deal in India’s consolidating towerco market following Ascend Telecom’s own acquisition of Tower Vision and American Tower’s sale to Brookfield. Mint reports that “[t]hey’ve approached bankers and have asked them to gauge the interest of the promoters. Early-stage discussions are expected to take place in the coming weeks or months, but a final deal is likely in four to six months.”
2024 promises to be a year of rationalisation for India’s telecom tower market. American Tower’s exit appears to already be unlocking new capital for India's towercos.
American Tower agreed a deal with Summit Digitel’s owners Brookfield to sell their loss-making 77,712 sites for US$2.5bn in January 2024, but it only closed in September. The deal had been long anticipated and KKR, Stonepeak and Macquarie had all been linked to the deal before Brookfield were announced as the winners.
Last month Brookfield added American Tower's 76,000-tower portfolio to the business it had built over the prior half decade. Summit Digitel, Crest Digitel, and its newly acquired towers will operate under the name Altius - the new second largest towerco in the world, leapfrogging Indus Towers to become India's largest towerco too.
In 2023, Ascend Telecom itself expanded by acquiring Tower Vision US$365mn, which added around 9,000 towers to its assets, making Ascend a similar size to GTL Infrastructure, however many of GTL Infrastructures site still lack tenants following the folding of 14 Indian telecom tower companies after Jio's entrance.
