Bharti Airtel subsidiary Bharti Hexacom has put on hold the sale of 3,400 towers to Indus Towers.

Local media reports noted that the sale has been halted following a request from minority shareholders Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd (TCIL), which holds a 15 percent stake in the company.

The sale, which was announced in February, won't impact Airtel's separate sale of 12,700 towers to Indus. Both deals were set to cost Indus Rs3,308.7 crore ($384 million).

However, Hexacom's planned sale has been put on hold over a dispute between the company and TCIL over the valuation of the sale. LiveMint reports that the value of the 3,400 towers is Rs1,134 ($132.9m).

In a regulatory filing last week, Indus confirmed that the sale has been put on hold for now.

"In this regard, please note that based on the intimation received from Bharti Hexacom which has also been communicated by them to the Stock Exchanges, the sale/transfer of [the] passive infrastructure business undertaking by Bharti Hexacom to the company has been kept in abeyance," said Indus in the filing.

Founded in 1995, when the government paired with Mobile Telecommunications Company (Kuwait) and Shyam Telecom Ltd through TCIL to create a joint venture named Hexacom India.

Hexacom provides telecom services primarily to Rajasthan and the northeastern region of India. Bharti Airtel acquired a majority stake in Hexacom in 2004.

Indus Towers is India's biggest tower operator and owns more than 234,000 towers across the country, plus more than 386,000 colocation sites.

The company was founded in 2007 by Bharti Infratel, Vodafone Essar, and Idea Cellular, the latter two of which would eventually merge.

Last month, Vodafone Group completed the sale of its remaining stake in Indus. Earlier in 2024, Vodafone sold an 18 percent stake in Indus Towers, worth €1.7 billion ($1.93bn). Meanwhile, Airtel's stake in the company is worth 49 percent.