Aditya Birla Group owned telecom firm, Idea Cellular, has received the requisite nod from its stakeholders for a de-merger of its passive infrastructure into a subsidiary - Idea Cellular Towers Infrastructure, that deals with installation of towers and base stations for the firm.

Earlier, Reliance and Bharti Airtel had also separated their infrastructure operations from their other telecom operations, in a bid to arrest the increasing capital costs.
Vodafone Essar has also received the permission from foreign investment promotion board (FIPB) for transferring its tower infrastructure business into a new arm, Ortus Infratel. The firm has approached FIBP to acquire 100 per cent stakes in Ortus Infratel through two Mauritius-based companies, Vodafone Tower Holdings and Essar Infratel.

A market analyst said: "The de-merger route helps telecom companies bring transparency in terms of its 'asset value' and it becomes much easier selling this stake. There is a possibility the wholly owned subsidiary would in turn transfer the towers to Indus Towers."

Indus Towers, a three way joint venture between Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular, serves the needs of various telecom operators for telecom infrastructure. Idea Cellular owns 16 per cent shares in the Indus Towers, while the remaining two partners hold 42 per cent each in the JV.

Idea, which had 21,459 rent-paying cell sites by December 2008, has transferred 11,094 cell sites on Idea towers, under the indefeasible right of use (IRU) effective January 1, 2009.

Shares of Idea surged 0.43% to Rs 69.50 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.