BENGALURU (Reuters) – Bharti Group and Vodafone Group Plc have proposed that industry veteran Bimal Dayal should head the combined tower venture of Indus Towers Ltd and Bharti Infratel Ltd, the companies said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

Last year, Bharti Infratel agreed to merge with Indus Towers, seeking to capitalise on the telecom industry’s rapid growth amid a vicious price war in the world’s second-biggest market by mobile phone users.

The deal, which would create the world’s No. 2 telecom tower company with an estimated equity value of $14.6 billion, is at an “advanced stage of completion,” the companies said.

Bimal Dayal is the current CEO of Indus Towers.

Hemant Ruia, currently the chief financial officer of Indus Towers, will likely be the finance head of the merged entity.