Reliance Comm’s Tower Unit on the Block for $5B

Reliance Communications has hired UBS to sell its tower unit, Reliance Infratel, and is asking for $5 billion for a 95% stake, Reuters reported. The company has reached out to several private equity firms and potential strategic buyers – including the Blackstone Group and the Carlyle Group, Reuters said.

(Reuters) – Billionaire Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications has hired UBS to sell its 95-percent stake in tower unit Reliance Infratel and has reached out to several strategic and private-equity firms, including Blackstone and UAE’s Etisalat, asking for $5 billion for the stake, three sources with direct knowledge said.

Potential bidders have said Reliance’s valuation of the stake is at least a billion dollars too high, two of the sources said, adding that the process was still in a very early stage.

UBS has reached out to U.S. companies American Tower and Crown Castle International , India’s Viom Networks and UAE’s Etisalat , said the sources, who declined to be identified because the process is not public yet.

The bank has also reached out to private-equity firms Carlyle, Apax Partners and Blackstone , the sources said.

UBS declined to comment. Reliance Comm was not immediately available for comment. (Reporting By Jui Chakravorty and Indulal P.M.; Additional reporting by Devidutta Tripathy and Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Aradhana Aravindan)