US-based private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co will invest $250 million in Bharti Infratel, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Airtel.

Bharti Airtel owns over 20,000 sites and holds about 42 per cent stake in Indus Towers, the recently-announced joint venture between Bharti, Vodafone and Idea, which has over 70,000 sites.

The investment would be made by KKR’s Asia dedicated private equity fund and its global private equity fund and is in addition to the $1 billion investment in Bharti Infratel by international investors Temasek Holdings, The Investment Corporation of Dubai, Goldman Sachs, Macquarie, AIF Capital, Citigroup and India Equity Partners in December 2007.

This investment would translate into about two per cent stake in Bharti Infratel. The enterprise valuation of Bharti Infratel would be in the range of $10-12.5 billion with the final valuation to be determined in FY’09.

This investment reinforces the confidence of leading global investors in Indian telecom sector, which is now the fastest growing telecom market in the world.