India's Reliance Comm plans tower unit IPO - paper

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MUMBAI, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Reliance Communications (RLCM.BO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), India's No. 2 mobile operator, is looking to raise up to $1.5 billion from an initial share offer in its tower business unit, the Economic Times said on Monday citing unnamed banking sources.

Reliance hopes to sell 10 percent of the post-issue capital in Reliance Telecom Infrastructure and will file a prospectus for the IPO with the regulator this week, the newspaper said.

The IPO will aim to raise 50 billion to 60 billion rupees ($1.3 billion to $1.5 billion), it said.

A spokesman for Reliance Communications, part of India's Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, declined comment on the report.

Last year, the mobile firm had sold a 5 percent stake in the unit to seven institutional investors for 14 billion rupees and had said it could sell more through an IPO or other placements.

Group firm utility Reliance Power last month raised $3 billion in India's largest-ever IPO.

Reliance Telecom Infrastructure, which owns about 25,000 mobile towers, plans to expand them 40,000 by March and to 60,000 a year later, Chairman Anil Ambani said in an investor conference call last week.

Larger rival Bharti Airtel (BRTI.BO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said in December it had agreed to sell up to 9 percent stake in its telecoms tower unit to seven international investors for a total $1 billion.

JPMorgan (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Enam Securities, UBS (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), ABN AMRO AAH.AS would be managers for the Reliance tower unit IPO, the paper said. ($1=39.4 rupees) (Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)