Mittal family and Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel), two promoters of Bharti Airtel are looking to equalise their direct stake in the company in the future. Bharti Airtel is India's second-largest telecom operator and also has international operations in Africa, and other countries. A Singtel executive has now confirmed that the two promoters are looking to equalise their direct stakes in the telco. Mittal family owns a 3.31% direct stake in Airtel through the Indian Continent Investment Limited (ICIL) while Singtel owns a 9.5% direct stake through Pastel Ltd.
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Arthur Lang, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Singtel said that this move would happen over the medium term. At present, the Mittal family owns a 23.7% total stake in Airtel, while Singtel owns a 29.44% stake. Both companies have an indirect ownership stake in Airtel through Bharti Telecom Ltd (BTL), which owns a 40.33% stake in Bharti Airtel.
For the Mittal family, the direct ownership is through 3.31% through ICIL while the remaining 20.39% is through BTL. Singtel has direct ownership of 9.5% through Pastel Ltd while the remaining 19.94% stake is through BTL. In BTL, Bharti Group (owned by Mittal Family) has a 50.56% stake while BTL has a 49.44% stake.
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How exactly would the structure look like after equalisation is something only time will tell. Bharti Airtel's current market cap is more than Rs 9 lakh crore. Thus, a single percentage in the company will cost Rs 9000 crore or more. It is worth noting that last month, BTL increased its stake in Bharti Airtel to 40.33% by acquiring an additional 1.2% from Airtel's promoter entity, ICIL.
Singtel is expecting Airtel to give out bigger dividends in the future. This will help BTL in servicing its expanded debt levels. For the unaware, for FY24, Airtel announced a dividend of Rs 8 per share.
