Brookfield Asset Management will acquire 100% of ATC India for $2.5 billion
The Competition Commission of India has cleared the takeover of American Tower Corp (ATC) Indian operations (known as ATC India) by Brookfield Asset Management for $2.5 billion. The acquisition, announced in January, will see the Canadian firm assume possession of 100% of ATC India’s telecom infrastructure, making it the largest operator of telecom towers in the country.
For American Tower, this means an exit from India after a nearly 17-year run. The company currently has approximately 78,000 sites across the country.
When the deal was first announced, American Tower shared that the total cash proceeds include an enterprise value on the ATC India operations of approximately $2 billion, and that proceeds from the transaction are expected to be used to repay American Tower’s existing debts.
Also in January, Arpit Agrawal, managing director, head of infrastructure, India & Middle East, at Brookfield, said: “We look forward to expanding and enhancing our existing telecom tower portfolio in India, which enables a broader array of solutions for our customers and partners. Through strategic acquisitions like ATC India, we remain deeply committed to empowering digital connectivity and transforming the telecom infrastructure landscape across the region.”
This will be Brookfield’s third acquisition in the Indian telecommunications space. In 2022, Brookfield acquired a portfolio of 5,000 indoor business solution sites and small cell sites, which advances the rollout of 5G and enables telecom operators to extend their coverage capacity in difficult-to-access and dense areas. Brookfield also has a portfolio of roughly 175,000 towers that were acquired in 2020 from Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Limited.
