The acquisition is the biggest of Brookfield's three telecom-related deals in the roughly four years the Canadian company has been present in India, the world's second-largest market by number of subscribers.
ATC, on the other hand, will exit India after nearly 17 years. Its fortunes have floundered due to the struggles of top client Vodafone Idea and it recently wrote down the value of the business by $322 million.
Brookfield, whose so-called anchor client is Reliance Industries' Jio, will be in "a better position to manage the challenge that ATC had with high exposure to Vodafone Idea," said Vivekanand S, an analyst at Ambit Capital Research.
Jio and Vodafone Idea compete with Bharti Airtel in the Indian telecom market where, according to an Ericsson report, the number of 5G subscribers will quadruple by 2027, accounting for 40% of the total base, from 11% in 2023.
Airtel is the anchor client of Indus Towers, the current market leader with roughly 193,000 towers. Brookfield has around 157,000 towers and ATC operates some 77,000 towers.
