BENGALURU (India) • GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, said yesterday that its affiliates and a group of investors, including Canada's Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, bought an Indian telecommunications tower company from a unit of Reliance Industries for US$3.4 billion (S$4.6 billion).

The deal was signed last December and had been awaiting regulatory approval.

Since then, Reliance, which is controlled by Mr Mukesh Ambani, has been selling stakes in its digital unit to blue-chip companies, raising billions of dollars, to cut debt.

The finalisation of the deal also marks a foray into India's fast-growing telecommunications market, which in recent years has been upended by the launch of Jio Infocomm, Reliance's telecoms arm, whose cut-price packages have turned it into the country's biggest telecoms carrier by subscriber numbers.

"The portfolio offers resilient income and long-term value, given India's attractive data demand growth outlook, as 4G and smartphone penetration is still very low," said Mr Ang Eng Seng, GIC's chief investment officer for infrastructure.

The investment by the group is for around 135,000 communication towers used by Jio Infocomm, GIC said in a statement.

"While we remain cautious in this period of high uncertainty, we continue to seek good, long-term opportunities in India," Mr Ang said.

REUTERS