Vodafone Idea Plans To Sell Optic Fiber Arm, Navi Mumbai Data Centre: Report

Telecom major Vodafone Idea is reportedly planning to sell its optic fiber business to Brookfield asset management company. Besides, the company is also talking to Edelweiss Group, another asset management company for the sale of its data centre in Navi Mumbai, the Economic Times reported.

"The company is in talks with global asset manager Brookfield to sell its 156,000 km of optic fibre assets and Bank of America and Morgan Stanley are the bankers helping Vodafone negotiate with potential buyers," a person close to the development was quoted by ET. Adding to that, "Edelweiss may own such assets through one of its alternative investment funds - Edelweiss Yield Plus Fund."

According to the report, the fibre network business of the company is valued at $1.5-2billion. On the other hand, its data center business is priced between $60 million to $100 million. However, bankers have advised that there is a challenge to sell optic fibre business, as a sector is sitting is on huge debt i.e Rs. 7 lakh crore.

"We agree valuation would be a challenge. Given the state of the telecom industry, this isn't the best time to sell the fibre and this will impact valuation. However, efforts are being made to assess how much money it could fetch," an executive told the newspaper. It is also worth mentioning that Vodafone has not announced anything on this front.

This development comes after the Supreme Court order against telecom operators on the AGR issue, where Vodafone Idea has to pay Rs. 53,000 lakh crore to the DOT within three months.

However, Kumar Mangalam Birla confirmed earlier that if the government does not offer any relief package to the industry, then there are chances that the company will shut down its operations in India. He also intimated that the company will not make any further investment in the country.