Investors vie for $200-mn Excitel deal

A raft of investors including Switzerland-based Partners Group AG, Canada's Brookfield Asset Management Inc., and KKR have signed non-disclosure agreements (NDA) to potentially invest in internet services provider Excitel Broadband Pvt. Ltd, in a $200 million equity deal, said two people aware of the development.

- Utpal Bhaskar

The effort to raise growth funding has seen 15 prospective buyers, also including Macquarie Group, Apax Partners and Actis Llp, sign NDAs for the equity-raising process being run by Avendus Capital. The next stage will involve submitting non-binding offers (NBOs), following which the shortlisted bidders will be taken to the next stage for submitting a binding offer.

"The process has been recently launched. There is a lot of interest in the fibre-to-the home (FTTH) provider," said one of the two people cited above requesting anonymity.

Set up in 2015, Excitel has one million subscribers across 55 cities, including Hyderabad, New Delhi, Bangalore, Khammam, Vijayawada, Lucknow, and Kanpur.