Vodafone to sell remaining stake in Indian tower company Indus

This comes after Vodafone Idea had cleared ₹2,328.2 crore of its dues to Indus till the September quarter. The total dues amount to around ₹7,075 crore

The UK's Vodafone Group Plc is selling the whole 3% of stake it owns of Indus Towers in a $300 million deal to exit the company which is now a Bharti Airtel subsidiary.

The Sunil Mittal-led Airtel could be a potential buyer for the Indus Tower shares from Vodafone UK(Reuters)

The proceeds from selling the 79.2 million shares will be used to clear the company's $101 million in debts to existing lenders secured against Vodafone's Indian assets.

The remaining will be used to infuse fresh capital into Vodafone Idea (Vi), its Indian telecom joint venture with the Aditya Birla Group to clear a portion of its dues to Indus Towers.

This comes after Vi had cleared ₹2,328.2 crore of its dues to Indus till the September quarter. The total dues amount to around ₹7,075 crore.

The Sunil Mittal-led Airtel could be a potential buyer for the shares, according to an Economic Times report which cited unnamed industry executives and added that discussions have been going on for some time.

Earlier, these same discussions had gotten mired due to valuation differences, but the latest talks could bring results, according to the report.

This comes after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) cleared Airtel's proposal to increase its shareholding in Indus from the 50.005% it currently owns.