American Towers open to buy Indian company stakes

Wireless tower company American Tower Corporation today said it is open to acquire stake in similar companies in India and expects to start its operations in the country in next six months.

The US-based company is also considering Joint Ventures in India besides looking at 100 per cent sale and leaseback of towers, American Towers Corporation Chairman and CEO James Taiclet told reporters in New Delhi.

"We have already had introductory discussions with all major wireless operators in India, we do not have any announcements to announce today," he said.

The company, which is expecting $1.4 billion revenues in 2007-08, would set up its headquarters in Delhi and soon announce a business team.

The company owns and operates over 22,000

sites in the US, Mexico and Brazil. It also owns about 2,000 revenue producing rooftop and tower sites. American Towers has already got permission from the government to set up a 100 per cent subsidiary in India.

Its entry into India comes at a time when operators such as Bharti and Essar have hived off their telecom infrastructure business into separate entities in a bid to save cost.

Reliance Communications had also recently hived off a five per cent stake in its tower business for nearly Rs 1,400 crore (Rs 14 billion).

According to some reports, Reliance is looking at further diluting its stake by around 25 per cent and in talks with atleast three global majors, including American Tower Corp.