Indonesia’s Indosat sells 2,500 telecom towers to Tower Bersama

Feb 8 PT Indosat Tbk, Indonesia’s No.2 mobile phone provider, sold 2,500 telecommunication towers to PT Tower Bersama Infrastructure and will lease back the towers in a $519 million deal, the firm said on Wednesday.

The deal is the first major telecom tower sale since the Indonesian government in 2010 restricted foreigners from owning a stake in a tower company.

Indosat is controlled by Qatar Telecom. As a part of the tower deal, Indosat is expected to own at least a 5 percent stake in Tower Bersama once the deal is completed by first half of 2012.

Tower Bersama will pay $406 million upfront in a combination of cash and newly issued shares, both firms said. (Reporting by Andjarsari Paramaditha; Editing by Neil Chatterjee)

Source : reuters.com