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Mergers and Acquistions News

Categories: Telecoms

August 12th 2010, 16:59PM

The Macquarie SBI Infrastructure Fund (MSIF), a joint partnership between Macquarie, the Australian investment bank, and the State Bank of India, has announced it has acquired an 11 per cent stake in mobile tower firm Viom Networks $298.9 million (£191.7 million).

Viom Networks, formerly known as the Quippo-WTTIL brand, is a telecoms infrastructure company looking to expand with an additional 20,000 towers to consolidate its current stock of 37,000 towers over the next few years.

The firm was born after the 2009 merger between Quippo Telecom Infrastructure and Indian conglomerate Tata's telecoms arm.

Varun Baipia, infrastructure management chief executive officer for Macquarie SBI, said: "This is the largest and first investment made by MSIF in the sector. Other investments are being evaluated and we expect this acquisition to be one of the number of investments that MSIF will complete in near future."

Some 54 per cent of Viom is owned by Tata Teleservices and Tata Sons.

The MSIF works by providing investors located outside of India who offer access to emerging investments in the private sector within the country.
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