New Delhi, Aug. 12 -- Brookfield Asset Management Inc. is set to harvest more cash from the Indian telecom tower platform it created seven years ago, a move that could take the Canadian alternative investment firm's total proceeds to nearly $2 billion.
The Toronto- and New York-listed asset manager, along with two co-investors, has moved to take the Altius Telecom Infrastructure Trust public through an offering that comprises a fresh issue of units to raise Rs 500 crore and an offer for sale of 304.74 million units by the three unitholders.
Altius, an infrastructure investment trust which is currently privately listed, filed its draft offer document with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) earlier this month to convert into a publicly listed InvIT.
Brookfield intends to sell 188.63 million units. Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC is offering 76.5 million units and Canadian pension fund British Columbia Investment Management Corp (BCI) is shedding 39.6 million units.
The InvIT hasn't yet finalised the price band for the offering but its units are currently trading around Rs 171 apiece. At this price, the offer-for-sale portion will be pegged around Rs 5,200 crore. If the InvIT prices the offer at this level, Brookfield would pull out around Rs 3,200 crore (roughly $335 million). GIC's share would be almost Rs 1,300 crore and BCI would take home Rs 680 crore, back-of-the-envelope calculations show.
That would come in addition to the more than $1.66 billion Brookfield has already realised from Altius since the start of a selldown cycle that began in 2023. Brookfield's most recent sale happened in June, bringing its stake in the InvIT to about 54.4% from roughly 90% when Altius was privately listed in 2020. GIC currently owns a tad more than 22% while BCI holds 9.77% units in Altius.
A steady stream of exits
Brookfield first bought into the platform - then Reliance Industries Ltd's tower unit - in 2019, in what was at the time India's largest private equity deal, before bringing in GIC and BCI as co-investors and privately listing the units in August 2020. It cut that to about 75% in 2023 for roughly Rs 5,200 crore, then to just under 59% in February 2024 for about Rs 6,650 crore. In June this year, Brookfield, BCI and GIC together sold a combined 7.3% of the trust for about Rs 3,660 crore.
Beyond the selldowns that would cross Rs 17,000 crore with the latest offering, Brookfield would have also collected the biggest share of distributions that Altius has paid over the years. Since its 2020 listing, the InvIT has paid out roughly Rs 21,470 crore in cumulative unitholder distributions.
Brookfield and its co-investors have also injected fresh capital into Altius, including Rs 6,666 crore via a preferential allotment in 2024 that helped fund the roughly $2.5-billion purchase of American Tower Corp's India business.
The public listing comes on the back of a strong year operationally: Altius reported a profit of Rs 1,106.6 crore for the year ended March 2026, up from Rs 839.9 crore the year before, on revenue of Rs 24,165 crore, up from Rs 19,454 crore. It operates more than 258,000 telecom sites and over 315,000 tenancies across all 22 Indian telecom circles, making it the country's largest independent tower platform by site count - and giving Brookfield a business healthy enough to keep tapping for exits.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.