American Tower Corporation (ATC) has closed the sale of its Indian business unit (ATC India) to Brookfield Asset Management and exited its biggest international market in the process.
The company has sold 100 percent of its operations to Data Infrastructure Trust (DIT), an infrastructure investment trust sponsored by an affiliate of Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management.
First announced in January, the tower company agreed on a deal to sell its operations in India for INR 210 billion ($2.5bn) to Data Infrastructure Trust (DIT).
Proceeds from the sale are expected to be used to repay American Tower’s existing indebtedness, including the repayment of the existing India term loan at closing.
ATC's exit from India has long been expected. Last year, DCD reported that the company was confident of an exit from India and in the latter stages of negotiations.
ATC India has operated in the market for 17 years and owns more than 77,000 towers in the country as of the end of 2022. Its biggest customer in the country is debt-stricken Vodafone Idea (Vi).
It's the third biggest tower infrastructure services provider in the country, behind Indus Towers and Brookfield-owned Summit Digitel, which acquired Reliance Jio's telecom towers.
Brookfield has around 157,000 towers across India and counts Reliance Jio as its anchor tenant.
Globally, American Tower operates more than 224,000 towers across 25 markets.
Earlier this week, ATC sold its Australian subsidiary AT Australia to Australian digital infrastructure firm Waveconn.
The company also sold its operations in New Zealand to infrastructure company Connexa.