Brookfield’s Altius is said to plan $630 million India IPO

Brookfield Asset Management Inc. is preparing to file draft papers as early as May for an initial public offering of Altius Telecom Infrastructure Trust that could raise as much as 60 billion rupees ($630 million), according to people familiar with the matter.

The country’s largest telecommuncations tower operator is working with JM Financial Ltd., Axis Bank Ltd., Kotak Mahindra Capital Co., Citigroup Inc., Jefferies Financial Group Inc. and Novaaone Capital Pvt. to submit its draft prospectus, the people said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private. In addition, the company is considering a pre-IPO round to raise as much as 30 billion rupees, they said.

Deliberations are ongoing and the details of the play may change, the people said. Representatives for Brookfield, Altius and the banks didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The offering could rank among India’s largest infrastructure investment trust listings in recent years. InvITs in India have delivered strong returns over the past year. The country has 27 registered InvITs, six of which — IRB InvIT Fund, India Grid Trust, Powergrid Infrastructure Investment Trust, Indus Infra Trust, Capital Infra Trust and Raajmarg Infra Investment Trust — are publicly listed. On average, these listed InvITs have generated total returns of about 17% over the past year, outperforming the benchmark Nifty 50 index, which declined 1.63% during the same period.

Altius Invit was incorporated in 2019 by Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Ltd., a wholly owned unit of Reliance Industries Ltd. The same year, Brookfield acquired stake in the trust that manages Reliance’s mobile-phone tower assets in a deal valued at about 252.2 billion rupees ($2.6 billion).

Altius is the largest number of telecommunication towers in India, with a market share of about 40%, according to ratings provider Crisil. It has expanded its portfolio from about 136,000 sites in 2019 to more than 257,000, according to its website. In 2024, the company acquired assets from American Tower Corp. in a transaction valued at roughly $2.5 billion.