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Goldman Sachs, the world's biggest securities firm, and Singapore government's investment arm Temasek are among a clutch of investors that have picked up around 8-10 per cent stake in the tower subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Ltd for $1 billion.
"The enterprise valuation has been agreed to be in the range of $10-12.5 billion and the final valuation will be determined on the basis of Bharti Infratel's actual operating performance in 2008-09," a Bharti statement said.
Bharti Infratel is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, the country's biggest mobile operator. International investors also include The Investment Corporation of Dubai, Macquarie, AIF Capital Citigroup and India Equity Partners.
Temasek is the largest investor in the transaction.
Bharti Infratel owns 42 per cent stake in Indus Towers, the joint venture between Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone Essar for 16 circles with 70,000 sites. Bharti Infratel has 20,000 sites in the remaining seven circles.
Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers will provide passive infrastructure services to all wireless telecom operators in India, it said. Sharing passive infrastructure saves capital and operating expenditure and improves capital efficiency for all wireless operators, enabling quicker roll out of services especially in rural areas, the statement added.