The promoter company of Bharti Airtel, Bharti Telecom, sold 2.75 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel to institutional investors across Asia, Europe and the United States of America (US). The company raised over Rs 8,433 crore (USD approximately 1.15 billion) with this sale.
The company informed the exchange that it was oversubscribed multiple times with a healthy mix of all categories of investors.
The stake sale was anchored by several existing and new shareholders and several marquee Global Mutual Fund complexes, Sovereign Wealth Funds, Multi-strategy funds and Domestic institutional investors in sizable quantities, the company informed.
Post this transaction, Bharti Group and Singtel will still continue to own a majority stake (56.23 per cent) in Bharti Airtel.
Announcing the successful transaction, Harjeet Kohli, Group Director, Bharti Enterprises, said, “The strong and wide response received from a diverse mix of investors across geographies, even during challenging global macroeconomic conditions, clearly demonstrates the competitive strength and the long term prospects of Bharti Airtel.”
He added, “With the proceeds, Bharti Telecom Limited will become a zero debt company providing an even stronger financial flexibility and capacity to provide any additional shareholder support as may be desired by Bharti Airtel from time to time.”
The sale proceeds will be utilised to service repayment of debt which was raised primarily to finance the acquisition of Bharti Airtel equity shares in the past. In the last few years, the promoters have invested over Rs 21,000 crore (over USD 3 Billion) in Bharti Airtel.
