Indonesia's PT Indosat has arranged to sell some of its telecom towers to PT Tower Bersama Infrastructure, in a deal which may be worth as much as $500 million.
Tower Bersama has confirmed to Bloomberg that it has entered an exclusive agreement to buy towers from Indosat then lease use of the towers back to the operator, but said that it is still negotiating how many towers will be purchased and at what price.
But sources close to the deal told the wire service that Indosat is seeking to sell around 3,000 towers and hopes that the divestment will be worth as much as $500 million.
The non-binding agreement does not oblige either party to go through with a transaction. Tower Bersama counts all 11 Indonesian mobile operators as customers.
News of the agreement comes days after rumors emerged that India's Reliance Communications has found an alternative buyer for its own tower assets, in the form of a private equity consortium, and could receive up to $4 billion in a sale.
RCom had planned to sell its tower business to GTL Infrastructure last year for $11 billion, but this deal later collapsed.