Tower InvIT Data Infra Trust to raise Rs 6,600 cr from Brookfield, GIC, British Columbia for ATC deal

Brookfield, GIC and Canada’s British Columbia to invest over Rs 6,600 cr in tower InvIT to fund ATC acquisition

Data Infrastructure Trust, a telecom-focused infrastructure investment trust (InvIT), plans to raise up to Rs 6,666 crore from its sponsor Brookfield, Singapore’s GIC and Canadian pension fund British Columbia Investment to fund the acquisition of US-based American Tower Corporation’s telecom portfolio in India.

Data Infrastructure Trust had on January 4 announced that it will acquire ATC’s India telecom business comprising 78,000 towers for an enterprise value of Rs 16,500 crore (subject to pre-closing terms). The acquisition is expected to be completed by the next month.

This will be Brookfield’s third acquisition in the Indian telecommunications space. In 2022, it had picked up a portfolio of 5,000 indoor business solution sites and small cell sites. Brookfield also has a portfolio of roughly 175,000 towers that were acquired in 2020 from Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Limited.

The board of Data Infrastructure Trust has approved a plan to raise the funds from the three investors through a private placement of 444.4 million units of the InvIT at a price of Rs 150 per unit, filings show.

Brookfield, as the sponsor, will invest Rs 4,125 crore, while GIC and British Columbia Investment will pump in Rs 1,674 crore and Rs 867 crore. In addition to the equity funds to be raised by the InvIT, it has also tied up debt funding of Rs 7,900 crore from foreign investors through non-convertible debentures (NCDs), the filings said.

The Data Infrastructure Trust board has also approved to raise debt from domestic investors and lenders to the tune of Rs 5,600 crore, comprising NCDs of Rs 1,850 crore and term loans of up to Rs 3,750 crore.

With the proposed acquisition of the ATC business, having around 78,000 towers, Data Infrastructure Trust will become the market leader in the Indian telecom tower market with a portfolio of 252,000 towers.

Indus Towers Limited, with a portfolio of 225,910 towers as of June 30, is the biggest telecom tower operator in the country.