www.WirelessFederation.com/news: IPO of the tower businesses has been planned by Indonesian cellco Telkom but before that it will have to buy out tower partner SingTel in a deal which could cost it up to $1.2 billion.
$400 million has already been secured by the operator in loans from local banks to help buy out SingTel’s stake in its tower arm. Telkom has been advised by the Macquarie Group to buy SingTel out of the 9,000-strong tower business.
Telkomsel owns the towers of which 35% stake is owned by SingTel and 65% by Telkom. Transfer of 30,000 towers from Telkomsel to Mitratel had been hoped by both the operators.
BKPM attempts to have telecom infrastructure removed from its Negative Investment List as planned in March failed which prevented foreign investment in the tower industry.