Indus Towers Ltd will foray into the electric vehicle charging infrastructure sector as India's second largest telecom tower provider seeks to diversify operations.
"The company is well positioned to contribute to the EV charging infrastructure sector by leveraging its expertise in managing and providing space, power, and operations and maintenance (O&M) for seamless operation and efficiency,” the company said Thursday in a statement to exchanges, following a board approval. “This is in line with the company’s plan to supplement its long-term growth through relevant adjacent business opportunities."
Indus has already launched pilot EV charging stations in Gurugram and Bengaluru.
The move to diversify business comes on the back of the company deciding to look into 'adjacent business opportunities' to support its long-term growth. Indus Towers deploys, owns and manages telecom towers and communication structures, for various mobile operators. It has 234,643 towers in the country with presence in all 22 telecom circles, second to Brookfield Asset Management-backed Altius, which has 257,000 sites.
Indus will compete with the likes of Tata Power Ltd.’s arm EZ Charge, Statiq, ChargeZone and GLIDA, among others, in the Indian market which has seen the electric vehicle market grow rapidly over the past couple of years, dominated by two-wheelers by volume. The India Energy Storage Alliance estimates that India requires an investment worth $20-30 billion in the EV charging infrastructure to double the pace of growth of the segment. Currently, it is growing at an annual rate of 25-30%.
Indus Towers Q3 performance
Indus Towers reported a net profit of ₹4,003 crore for the quarter that ended December 2024, about 160% higher from ₹1,541 crore on-year.
Third-quarter Ebitda rose by 93.2% to ₹6,997 crore versus ₹3,622 crore year earlier. Revenues rose 4.8% on-year to ₹7,547 crore.
Collections of pending dues of about ₹5,427 crore from Vodafone Idea, one of Indus' major customers, in the December quarter and robust tower additions contributed to higher profits. Vi has been paying up monthly since January 2023 and has till date paid up ₹7,575 crore towards pending dues that are estimated to be around ₹10,000 crore. It also recieved ₹1,909 crore following the sale of Vodafone Group's 3% holding in Indus and its eventual exit as shareholder.
“The strong additions along with significant collections of overdue from a major customer helped us record an excellent financial performance,” Prachur Sah, managing director and CEO of Indus Towers said in a statement. “We expect the resumption of network expansion by a major customer, coupled with the rollouts by other customers, to act as strong levers of growth.”
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