India's Quippo plans $188 mln equity issue -paper
NEW DELHI, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Indian tower firm Quippo Telecom Infrastructure Ltd plans to raise 9 billion rupees ($188 million) by issuing new shares to shareholders and selling shares in the market, the Mint newspaper reported on Monday.
Unlisted Quippo, whose shareholders include India's SREI Infrastructure (SREI.BO), IDFC Private Equity and Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC), has agreed to pay 24 billion rupees cash to part fund a planned 49 percent stake buy in the tower unit of Tata Teleservices, India's No. 6 mobile operator.
The newspaper, citing an unnamed official from one of Quippo shareholder firms, said IDFC Private Equity, would subscribe to shares worth 2.5 billion rupees in a deal expected to be completed within a week.
Hemant Kanoria, chairman of SREI, told the paper Quippo would raise the remaining 15 billion rupees through mezzanine capital and debt.
The Economic Times newspaper reported Datacom Solutions, one of the new telecoms licensees in India, had signed an infrastructure-sharing deal with Tata Teleservices and the tower firm in which Quippo is buying a stake, in a bid to cut costs.
Tata Teleservices is expanding its GSM mobile services, while Datacom is yet to start operations.
A spokesman for Quippo was not immediately available for comment. ($1=48 rupees) (Writing by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)
