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ublicly listed telecommunications tower company PT Tower Bersama Infrastructure plans to buy back 5 percent of its shares owned by the public with a maximum budget of Rp 2.2 trillion, in a bid to finalize its deal with tower operator PT Dayamitra Telekomunikasi (Mitratel).

'€œWe plan to use the buy-back shares either to finalize a share-swap deal with Mitratel or for other investment,'€ Tower Bersama finance director Helmy Yusman Santoso said on Monday.

The company had set aside as much as Rp 2.2 trillion (US$170.5 million) to finance the buy-back option, with the funds coming from its retained earnings, he said in a statement submitted to the Indonesia Stock Exchange
on Monday.

The corporate action will be carried out by buying 236 million shares over the next 18 months, at the latest, after getting approval from shareholders. Tower Bersama is set to hold its shareholders meeting on May 27.

In October last year, the company signed a share swap deal with Mitratel, a subsidiary of state telecommunications company PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), under which Tower Bersama owns a 100 percent stake in Mitratel with the condition that it gives up a 13.7 percent stake to Mitratel.

Under the agreement, the swap deal is planned to be carried out in two phases, where Mitratel will swap its 49 percent stake for 290 million new Tower Bersama shares, a 5.7 percent stake in the company, and Mitratel has an option to exercise another 51 percent share-swap for another 8 percent stake in Tower Bersama.

Previously, Tower Bersama received approval from its shareholders to carry out private placement for a total of 479.65 million new shares, equal to a 10 percent stake in the company to carry out the first phase of the share-swap deal. The private placement has, however, not materialized as yet.

Once the share swap deal is finalized, all Mitratel'€™s respective towers and tenants will be with those of Tower Bersama, bringing the latter to a total of 15,194 tower sites and 22,391 tenants.

As of the end of last year, Tower Bersama had 11,820 telecommunications sites comprising 10,825 telecommunications towers, 941 shelter-only sites and 54 distributed antenna system (DAS) networks, with 18,081 tenants.

Tower Bersama registered a 22.2 percent increase in revenue to Rp 3.3 trillion last year from Rp 2.7 trillion in 2013.

The firm'€™s net profit stood at Rp 1.3 trillion in 2014, an 8.3 percent increase from Rp 1.2 trillion the previous year.

Tower Bersama recently announced that it had hedged $1.3 billion, or 75 percent of its total foreign-denominated debts, to mitigate currency risk.

Helmy said that the hedging level was a minimum, and that his company aimed to reach a level of 100 percent.

Tower Bersama'€™s shares, which are listed on the bourse under the code TBIG, rose by 1.35 percent to Rp 9,375 per piece at Monday'€™s close from Rp 9,250 apiece.