Leading telecom operator, Bharti Airtel on Tuesday announced that it sold over 83 million shares of its tower arm Bharti Infratel, which are worth Rs. 3,325 crores ($510 million). Nettle Infrastructure Investments Ltd, the wholly-owned unit of Airtel sold each share at Rs. 400.6 in stock market transactions at a discounted price of 3.6% compared to Monday's closing price.
An official statement from Airtel said the company will be looking to reduce the debt. As of September 2017, Airtel's consolidated debt stood at Rs. 91,480 crores.
After the transaction, Bharti Airtel and its other wholly owned entities will have an equity holding of 53.51% in tower arm Bharti Infratel, the official statement of Airtel read.
“The sale was for a total consideration of over Rs 3,325 crore ($510 million) and was executed at a price of Rs 400.6 per share, representing a discount of 3.6 percent to the previous day’s closing price,” Airtel added.
"The allocation was done to global investors, fund managers and long-only funds, including many repeat investors. Led by healthy investor appetite, the deal was upsized by over 25%," the company further added. JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and UBS were the joint agreements for the transaction.
Yesterday, India's second and third largest telcos, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular sold their respective tower businesses to ATC Telecom Infrastructure Private (ATC TIPL) for an aggregate enterprise value of Rs 78.5 billion or $1.2 billion. Both Vodafone and Idea Cellular are in the process of merger.
